


Like Brothers

by NachoKing99



Series: Like Brothers [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Academy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Friendship, Good Orochimaru (Naruto), M/M, POV Multiple, POV Third Person, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 57,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24793729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NachoKing99/pseuds/NachoKing99
Summary: Naruto never grows up on the streets. He grows up in a loving home, with loving parents, an eldest brother that he admires, and a middle brother whom he befriends. The family's name? The Uchihas.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Like Brothers [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913008
Comments: 36
Kudos: 179





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, I don't own Naruto.

The memorial service is a solemn affair. The Third Hokage feels like he’s in some messed up fever dream: the photos of two beloved students of students, along with countless others in front of a sea of black robes and crying faces just couldn’t be possible. But it is. Lord Third really is standing in the memorial service of Yondaime Hokage--Namikaze Minato--, his wife Uzumaki Kushina, and countless others who perished in the assault of the Kyuubi.

To his immediate right is Orochimaru--his beloved protege whom he has passed down all of his knowledge and jutsu to. To his immediate left is Shimura Danzo--his former teammate and fellow village elder. Both of them are watching the memorial service with scarily blank faces; the two have mastered the art of hiding one’s emotions, as is normal in the World of Shinobi. The Third Hokage himself is composed, but an inner turmoil brews deep within him. Who will take the mantle of Godaime Hokage? Hiruzen would honestly reclaim his old position, but he’s made so many mistakes in the past. He simply can’t find it in himself to retake the job that he so utterly failed. As the memorial service drags on, Hiruzen resolutes himself in choosing the Fifth Hokage.  
\---  
The sun is beating down from the sky. The black robes worn at the memorial service feel stuffy and hot. All of the services on goers have the same sense of anxiety for the future of the Village. When the service finally ends, Hiruzen tracks down his old student. 

“Orochimaru-kun, can I talk to you for a moment?” Hiruzen asks as he finally catches up to Orochimaru immediately after the service. 

“Sarutobi-sensei,” Orochimaru drags out his S’s as is characteristic of him, “Why don’t we go somewhere more private. I would like to talk to you as well.”

Hiruzen gives a brief nod and the pair of elite ninja navigate their way through the Hidden Leaf Village as they make their way to Ichiraku Ramen. They give Teuchi their regards, and the ramen master immediately starts preparing their regular orders. The two men sit in silence for a moment before Hiruzen starts, “Orochimaru-kun, I’m going to be very blunt. I want you to be the Fifth Hokage.”

Orochimaru chuckles and says, “I knew that that was what you were going to say. But sadly I must decline the offer. There’s somebody else who is in desperate need of securing the Hokage seat.” Hiruzen is baffled by his former pupil’s words. Hiruzen is sure that this is the man that constantly complained to him about being passed over as the Fourth just a couple months prior.

“Do tell,” Hiruzen ventures, “into explaining the sudden change of heart.” Then Teuchi places their respective orders in front of them. The ramen booth is empty except for Sandaime and his perfect slithery student.

“I still don’t see why I was never chosen as the Fourth,” Orochimaru mutters irritatedly, “Anyways, sensei, there is another person more suited to be Hokage other than myself. Would you care to humor me with a guess?” 

Hiruzen thinks for a moment. Nobody immediately comes to mind as a candidate except for Orochimaru. Sandaime only preferred Minato as Yondaime because he thought Orochimaru would be more suited in an advisory role in the village. Orochimaru is no doubt an exemplar shinobi, but he doesn’t exactly radiate the Will of Fire that is needed in a Hokage. Now that Minato’s passed, Hiruzen wants to nominate Orochimaru regardless of the fact. “There is nobody else in the village that can possibly be Hokage other than you, Orochimaru,” Hiruzen proclaims after some thought and a mouth-full of ramen. “Other than maybe Jiraiya or Tsunade, I don’t think there is anybody more suitable. But Jiraiya’s never expressed interest and Tsunade’s off gambling away her life savings in God-knows-where.”

Orochimaru gave his former mentor a smug smirk, “Sarutobi-sensei, for the Fourth you chose Minato, one of Jiraiya’s old students. What about the other shinobi who had to suffer under Jiraiya’s tutelage?” Hiruzen digs deep into his mind to find whomever Orochimaru is talking about. Jiraiya’s old team? Who even was on the Great Toad Sage’s team? Minato just passed; the kunoichi on his team was barely notable; so, Orochimaru must mean Uchiha Fugaku! Fugaku is by no means a bad ninja, but an Uchiha has never led the village. They have their own business with the Konoha Police Force.

“That’s preposterous,” Hiruzen suddenly asserts, “that’s… that’s a conflict of interest.” Hiruzen is having trouble finding his words, while Orochimaru just looks at him with a cheshire grin. “The Uchiha cannot both lead the Police Force and Anbu at the same time.”

“But, Sarutobi-sensei, with the recent Kyuubi incident people are going to suspect the Uchiha because of their sophisticated Visual Prowess. If we’re going to quell a divided Village, we need to start now.” Orochimaru is sadistic. He is greedy. He is power hungry. But he loves his village to a fault. While Jiraiya idealistically looks to the future, and Tsunade pessimistically looks to it; Orochimaru pragmatically looks to the future. He knows that Danzo has a weird obsession with the Sharingan, and he also knows that a Godaime Hokage Orochimaru would be powerless in stopping Danzo and his crude ways. Orochimaru loves to slither in the dark, but even he knows that an iron-fisted Uchiha is the only one capable of stopping Danzo. Darkness plus darkness do not balance each other out. A Konohakagure with Orochimaru as Hokage and Danzo as second-in-command is destined to plunge too deep into the abyss. “Sarutobi-sensei, you are too soft on Danzo’s influence. We both know why Danzo kept the Uchiha away from the Kyuubi. If suspicions against the Uchiha emerge, Danzo will no doubt be the ringleader.”

Hiruzen knows this deep in his heart, but how can’t he trust Danzo? He’s a trusted comrade to Hiruzen from the previous Shinobi World Wars. Sandaime knows that everything Danzo does is for the benefit of the Village. Hiruzen is deep in thought when Orochimaru starts talking again. “Anyway, that is what I wanted to discuss with you. Give it some thought, Sarutobi-sensei. Even if you nominate me, I’ll be sure to reject it. By the way, the ramen was your treat.” Orochimaru winks, gets up from his stool, and leaves Hiruzen to brood over his important decision. The ramen master, like always, pretends he doesn’t hear any confidential information and continues his life-long passion of making ramen.


	2. A New Brother

Uchiha Fugaku strolls through the Konoha Hospital to check on all of the injured Uchiha clan members. It’s not a lot because the Uchiha were stationed away from the frontlines, but some of the newbie ninja got hit with some debris. As Fugaku’s wandering the hospital, he spots Sandaime looking through a window in the Maternity Ward. Fugaku makes his way over to say his greetings to whom he supposes is the acting Hokage. “Good morning, Sandaime. Are you visiting somebody?”

Lord Third turns towards him with a somber look on his face. “Meet Uzumaki Naruto: he’s Minato and Kushina’s orphan.” Fugaku turns to look at the window, and peering back at him is a blond baby boy with cerulean blue eyes, and cat-like whiskers. “Who’s going to take care of him? Are you?” Fugaku questions.

“Me? No, I’m much too old to care for a newborn. Besides, I don’t think I can do it without Biwako.” Fugaku gives the older man a hand on his shoulder. It’s unfathomable for Fugaku to think about life without Mikoto. “She will always be with us, Sandaime. In our hearts and souls.”

Hiruzen cracks a smile. “When did you become a poet, Fugaku? Mikoto’s influence must be profound. I hope your boys inherit her charisma.” Fugaku smiles at the thought of his wife, prodigious son, and new baby boy. 

“Anyways,” Fugaku starts, “Do you suppose Jiraiya-sensei will take care of Naruto? Sensei and Minato were always quite close.”

“Sadly, I don’t think Jiraiya’s coming back to the Village anytime soon. That boy was always too sentimental.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I can talk to Mikoto about adopting the boy. Minato was a former teammate after all. And he’s just about Sasuke’s age. We were already preparing for a new baby, I don’t see why we can’t take in one more.”

Hiruzen gapes at the Captain of the Konoha Police Force with amazement. He really had no idea what to do with Naruto. Fugaku is a real lifesaver. Not only has Naruto found a new home, Hiruzen found his Godaime Hokage. “Yes, that would be splendid, Fugaku. I’m sure Naruto and Sasuke will be close friends, if not brothers.”  
\---  
After his discussion, Fugaku immediately makes his way back to the Uchiha Head Family Compound. “I’m back,” he bellows as he sees Mikoto preparing lunch, and a five year old Itachi playing with Sasuke. 

Mikoto looks at him from the kitchen and says, “welcome back.” Itachi looks up and says the same. The Uchiha Head Family sit around the dining table eating lunch, when Fugaku mentions his conversation with Sandaime Hokage. “Oh my,” Mikoto expresses, “I didn’t even know Kushina’s son survived the attack! We have to look after the boy. Kushina wouldn’t want her son living in the streets.” Fugaku nodded in understanding with his wife, but what really surprised him was Itachi’s insistence on taking Naruto in as well. 

“Yes, Father, Mother has a very good point. We need to take in the boy. Not only would it be unsightly for the Yondaime’s son to live in the streets, I understand that you were Lord Fourth's teammate, right? We have a moral obligation to look after his orphan.” Fugaku truly didn’t know how his son is merely five years old. Perhaps Shisui has a bigger influence on him than he even began to realize. Being wise beyond his years is a true understatement for Itachi. But there is no doubt that he is a very kind boy. Fugaku has high expectations for his heir.

“What about you, Sasuke? Should we take in Naruto?” Mikoto jokes, while Sasuke responds with an incoherent babble. The family laughs, and finishes eating their lunch so they can go to the hospital and pick up Naruto.   
\---  
Hiruzen is waiting in Naruto’s hospital room when Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto make their appearance. “Fugaku, Mikoto, you both are really a wonder for doing this,” Hiruzen praises.

“Oh please,” Mikoto says flustered, “I know Kushina would do the same for Sasuke.” Fugaku just gives one resolute nod. 

“The adoption will be a very easy process, so I want to talk to you about something else first.” Fugaku gives a weary nod for Lord Third to keep on going. “I want to nominate you for Fifth Hokage. I think you embody the Will of Fire quite well, and judging from this event I know you have a very kind heart.” Fugaku is flabbergasted. Never in a million years did he think he would actually become a Hokage candidate. Minato’s nomination and ascension to the job hammered that sentiment into him. Besides him, Mikoto is positively ecstatic. “It’s just one thing after another today,” she says through a radiant smile.

“Lord Third, I just don’t know what to say. Do you think a jonin assembly will even confirm me as Hokage? Be realistic, please.”

“Well,” Hiruzen starts, “just like everything in life, I cannot say it with absolute certainty. But with my support as the Third Hokage, and Orochimaru’s as the Jonin Commander, I believe you have a very good chance.” Hiruzen knows he needs to thank Orochimaru later. Without his former pupil, who knows what Hiruzen would have done with the vacant position. 

Hiruzen directs the Uchihas to the adoption papers for them to sign, and after that Uzumaki Naruto is officially adopted into the Uchiha Head Family.   
\---  
Itachi is anxiously playing with Sasuke, waiting for his parents to get home. Who would have thought? Two little brothers in a matter of months. Itachi can’t wait for his two little brothers to grow up, so he can teach them everything he knows. Itachi wants to become like Shisui: a strong brother whom his brothers can look up to. And since the Uchihas are a shinobi family, Itachi can’t wait to help train his precious little brothers. And he doesn’t even know what Naruto looks like yet!

After an agonizing wait, Itachi hears the front door open. He hears his Mother yell out, “we’re back!” And he replies with a “welcome home!” What Itachi doesn’t expect is seeing Shisui enter the house with his parents. “Yo!” Shisui greets Itachi when he sees him. Itachi responds in kind with a wave and a smile. Mikoto hands Naruto off to Shisui, and Fugaku tells the boys, “We’re going to a clan meeting. Watch Sasuke and Naruto, you two.”

“Yes, Father,” Itachi automatically responds, and then adds, “Why are you having a clan meeting? Surely Naruto’s adoption can wait for the monthly one.”

“Well,” Fugaku takes a deep breath, “Sandaime asked that I step up as the Fifth Hokage.”

“Oh,” Itachi says with a straight face, “I guess you do need to go to a clan meeting.” All the while, Shisui silently laughs at Itachi’s blunt attitude.


	3. Orochimaru's Will of Fire

Orochimaru and Sandaime stand in the front row of Godaime’s Inauguration. It’s a cute sight. The father dons his haori with an authoritative presence and he’s flanked by Mikoto holding Naruto and Itachi holding Sasuke. It’s so domestic, Orochimaru almost wants to puke. When Orochimaru spots Danzo leaving the Hokage Mansion early, is when the snake sage’s curiosity peaks. Orochimaru taps Sandaime’s shoulder, and whispers in his ear, “Seems like the rabbit is leaving. Shall the snake chase his prey?”

Hiruzen subtly nods his head, and Orochimaru takes off his snakeskin patterned trench coat that he wears over his standard green flak jacket. He hands it over to Hiruzen, saying, “there’s no need sullying a perfectly good coat on this auspicious day.”

Orochimaru tails Danzo all the way back to the Root Headquarters. The snake sage is hiding behind one of the pillars when Danzo suddenly throws a wind-nature enhanced kunai at him. “You can come out now. No one’s around.”

Orochimaru steps out of the shadows with a pompous grin. “As expected of Sarutobi-sensei’s teammate. Your generation is too observant.”

Danzo sneers in response. “What do you want, Orochimaru? If you don’t want to join Root, then I recommend you leave. Wouldn’t want Godaime to start his reign with the death of one of his closest advisors.”

Orochimaru takes another step closer. “I was just going to ask you why you were leaving early. But that’s a rather interesting statement thinking you can kill me, Danzo-san.”

Danzo opens his mouth to speak, when suddenly he yells, “Futon: Vacuum Sphere,” and shoots bullets of wind at Orochimaru. Orochimaru in turn yells, “Doton: Earth Style Wall,” and slams his hands onto the ground. The wind bullets pierce through the wall to the surprise of Orochimaru. Danzo charges towards the wall with a wind-enhanced kunai, and slashes the wall, and supposedly Orochimaru, with a clean horizontal swipe. After a few moments, a pop sounds from behind the wall. Transformation Jutsu, Danzo imagines. Orochimaru pops up from the ground behind Danzo with Doton: Hiding Mole Jutsu, when he notices the approaching presence of the Root Anbu. Immediately, Orochimaru signs the Snake Mouth Bind, and their surroundings enclose around themselves turning pink and squishy. 

“My apologies, Danzo-san. You won’t be getting any help from your precious Anbu. Let’s see who the real roots of the Hidden Leaf Village is.” The battle effectively reset, but now there would be no chance of interruptions. 

“That’s fine. I’ll just kill you now, you damn snake. Your name’s gotten too famous anyways; you lost your value as a shinobi,” Danzo sneers. Orochimaru’s eye twitches at the insult, and he resolutes himself in killing this bastard.

Danzo jumps back and yells, “Katon: Fire Dragon Bomb”. Orochimaru signs, and screams, “Doton: Earth Style Wall,” effectively stopping the onslaught of the raging fire dragon.

“Come on,” Danzo provokes, “don’t you have more tricks than that. Don’t waste my time.” Orochimaru truly hates this man; he feels his eye twitching in annoyance anytime he speaks. Orochimaru thinks he waited long enough. Time to get serious. Orochimaru claps his hands together and yells, “Sage Transformation!” The area around his eyes turn scaly, and the eyes themselves turn a cerulean blue. A shroud of ethereal chakra snakes surround his body--each seeming like they have a life of their own. Danzo’s left eye widens, and immediately Danzo whips off the bandage covering his right eye: a sharingan lies underneath it.

Orochimaru’s mouth morphs into a slanted smile. “I knew you stole a Sharingan. How haughty of you to use it the day of the first Uchiha Hokage’s Inauguration.”

“It’s a pity it’s not even the best Sharingan. If only I could've gotten my hands on Shisui’s before our fight.” How interesting, Orochimaru thinks. Danzo really thinks he can get his hands on Shisui’s Sharingan. The entire Uchiha clan would have his head in an instant, and that wouldn’t be any fun: Danzo is Orochimaru’s prey. 

“The real pity is that you're going to die before you get your hands on his Sharingan,” Orochimaru hisses. “Enough chatter, let us begin our dance.” Orochimaru zooms towards Danzo with his enhanced speed. Danzo uses his Visual Prowess to avoid getting bit by an ethereal snake. The two continuously clash kunais in the belly of the snake. The battle rages in flips between offense and defense. Danzo’s air bullets are countered by variously natured walls. Orochimaru’s elemental dragons are evaded with the aid of the Sharingan. Eventually, the fight evolves into a taijutsu brawl. Danzo evades attacks with the Sharingan; Orochimaru uses his chakra snake cloak. Eventually, they both jump away from each other, breathing hard.

“Seems we’re both a little out of practice for battle, huh,” Orochimaru remarks. 

“Nonsense. I’m just getting warmed up.” In truth, Danzo is breathing hard. Old age is a nasty bitch. Danzo is past the prime of his life, only living on the adrenaline of finally getting to kill Orochimaru. Suddenly, Danzo falls to the ground. A snake with a sword in its mouth stabbed him cleanly in the back, aimed for the heart. “Orochimaru, you bastard,” Danzo wheezes out. “When did you even do a Summoning Jutsu?”

Orochimaru grins, his snake chakra cloak disappearing. “After I made my initial Earth Style Wall. I could have killed you anytime, Danzo-san. I just like playing around with my prey before I eat them. Release.” The Snake Mouth Bind around them dissipates back into the Root Headquarters the fight started at. The afternoon sun starts beating down against Orochimaru’s pale skin. Waiting for them are Root Anbu, Sandaime, and Godaime.

“Danzo-sama!” one of the Anbu members cries out when they see his dead, bleeding body. Orochimaru walks towards the Hokages. Sandaime has a single eyebrow barely raised, and Godaime has his mouth in a flat line. 

“I hope that there is an explanation for this, Orochimaru-san.” Godaime says when he walks a reasonable distance towards them. 

“Oh, there is, Godaime Hokage. Shall we take this to your office? This is something that should be discussed in private.” Now, Fugaku raises an eyebrow and wordlessly turns to start walking towards the Hokage Mansion. Orochimaru nods his head in Hiruzen’s direction, and they start walking behind Lord Fifth after Orochimaru puts back on his trenchcoat. 

When they reach the Hokage office, Fugaku sits down, and looks at the snake sage expectantly. Orochimaru bites his thumb, signs, and says, “Summoning Jutsu,” slamming his hand on the Hokage’s desk. An average sized snake appears, and regurgitates a scroll. Orochimaru merely points at the scroll. Fugaku picks it up, and starts reading it with Hiruzen walking behind the desk to do the same. Both of their eyes immediately widen.

“That bastard!” Fugaku yells out after reading a detailed assassination plan targeting himself. 

“Fugaku-san, you should watch your language now that you are the Hokage,” Orochimaru jokingly admonishes. “And, you’re welcome. You need a snake to know how snakes operate.”

“I hope that you're a snake that won’t bite me in my sleep, Orochimaru.”

“Of course. Just look at Sarutobi-sensei, I could have killed him anytime I wanted, but he’s still standing here now.” Lord Third just shakes his head: He’s gotten used to Orochimaru by now. 

“If you’ll now excuse me. I’m in desperate need of a shower,” Orochimaru says after bowing his head.

“Of course, close the door on your way out. I want to talk to Sandaime-sama for a bit.” With that, Orochimaru stalks out of the Hokage Mansion, with a grin on his face. Every village only needs one foundation, and Orochimaru is intent on being that foundation. He will protect Lord Fifth and his family even if it costs him his life. Orochimaru knows why he never became the Fourth Hokage. He knows that Hiruzen doesn’t believe the Will of Fire burns too deeply within himself, but the Will of Fire burns bigger and brighter inside Orochimaru than anybody could even imagine. Orochimaru would never say this to anybody, but his Will of Fire burns even more blistering than Tsunade’s: it burns blue. Were the assassination plans forged or real? Well now, only Orochimaru knows the true answer. Anything for the safety of the Village and their beloved leader.  
\---  
Fugaku trudges back home with a headache and a million thoughts coursing through his mind. His first day into the job, and one of the most senior elders is killed--by another senior adviser. Luckily, Sandaime said he’ll deal with the remaining Root Anbu, so that’s one thing off his shoulders. But running a village is no easy task; he feels his hair greying, and it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet. Although, he realizes it’s all worth it when he walks into his home.

“I’m back,” he calls out, and sees Itachi lying on his belly playing with Naruto: Itachi’s wiggling his index finger in front of Naruto’s hands so he can reach out and grab it with his little baby fingers. Naruto’s giggling, and Itachi has the brightest smile Fugaku has ever seen on him. On a nearby chair, Mikoto is gently rocking a sleeping Sasuke, and singing what seems like a lullaby to him. Fugaku outright smiles. This. This is why he became Hokage. To protect his dear family from anything and everything.

Mikoto and Itachi look up, and say in sync, “Welcome home.”


	4. 6 Years Later

6 Years Later

“Sasuke honey, wake up. You don’t wanna be late on your first day of the Academy!” his Mom calls out. Sasuke groans and digs deeper into his blanket. He doesn’t want to go to the Academy. He wants to stay home and play with Naruto. He wants to train with Itachi. He doesn’t want to go to the Academy where others will outshine him. He doesn’t want others to take Naruto’s attention away from him. Naruto’s a people magnet, while Sasuke’s a people repellant. He doesn’t want to go to the Academy where he’ll be lonely.

Suddenly, his door slams open (a feat only Naruto can accomplish) and a blond bundle of energy bursts into his room. “Wake up, Sasuke! We’re going to the Academy! We’re finally going to the Academy!” Sasuke covers his ears with his pillow.

“OK. Shut up, Naruto. I’m awake. I’m awake.”

Naruto scrutinizes him in the darkness of the room. “You don’t look awake! Your eyes are still closed.” Naruto jumps on his bed, grabs his hand, and forcibly drags him into a sitting position. “Come on, Sasuke. Let’s go and make new friends. I think Shikamaru and Choji are coming to the Academy too.”

Sasuke reluctantly gets out of bed, and follows Naruto to the dining room. Now that Sasuke can actually see, he notices that Naruto isn’t even dressed yet: He’s still wearing a white t-shirt with the Uzumaki swirl symbol on the back and pajama pants. The two soon-to-be Academy entrants enter the dining room where Mikoto is preparing breakfast, Fugaku is drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, and Itachi is reading over a scroll--presumably the info for his next mission. Itachi notices them first, and smiles at the sight of them. “Are you two excited for your first day at the Academy?” Itachi asks.

Naruto hyperly nods his head up and down. “Yup! I’m gonna make so many friends, I’m gonna lose count of ‘em all! Believe it!” 

Sasuke gives a single nod of assent without saying anything: Naruto talks enough for the both of them. Mikoto brings the food to the dining table, and chuckles at Naruto’s excitement. “What am I going to do anymore?” she asks rhetorically, “my two baby boys are leaving the nest. I might have to start doing missions again!”

“Wait, you're a ninja, Mom?” Naruto asks with a mouthful of food,and Mikoto immediately tells him not to talk with his mouth full. Sasuke continues eating his food, passively listening to the conversation. 

“Yes, I may not look it, but I was once a jonin,” Mikoto says proudly. Fugaku just shakes his head with a grin, and continues reading the newspaper.

“But, Mother,” Itachi looks up from his scroll. “You were off-duty for over a decade. Can you really still be considered a jonin ranked ninja?” 

Naruto starts looking confused. He quickly flicks his eyes between Mikoto and Itachi. “Wait, what’s a jonin?” Fugaku neatly folds up his newspaper, and stands up--his haori flowing behind him. 

He walks behind Naruto, and playfully hits him over the head with the newspaper. “You’ll learn what a jonin is from the Academy, son.” Naruto grins stupidly at another mention of the Academy, while Sasuke grimaces. Itachi notices Sasuke’s dampening mood: It’s the complete opposite of Naruto getting more and more excited the closer the time of departure gets. 

Fugaku gives Mikoto a peck on the cheek, Itachi a nod of acknowledgement, and stops in front of Naruto and Sasuke. “I need to go, boys. But I’ll see you at the entrance ceremony. Bye, Naruto. Bye, Sasuke.”

Naruto screams, “bye,” while Sasuke just says it in his normal voice. One more nod, and Fugaku is out the door on his way to the Hokage’s office. Itachi suddenly puts down his scroll, and tells Sasuke, “Come on. I’ll help you get dressed for your first day. Naruto, wait for Mom, and have her help you.”

“Yes sir,” Naruto says with a mock salute. Itachi beckons Sasuke back to his room. Itachi shuts the door behind him, and starts rummaging through his closet. He pulls out a high collar shirt with the Uchiha crest proudly displayed on the back of it, holds it up in front of Sasuke, and nods his approval. 

When Sasuke starts taking off his sleeping shirt, Itachi asks, “Is something bothering you, Sasuke? You seem awfully moody this morning.” Sasuke pouts; he doesn’t mean to worry his brother. Itachi rummages some more through his closet, and pulls out white shorts.

Sasuke starts putting on his navy blue Uchiha crest shirt, and lies, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry, ni-chan. I’m excited to go to the Academy.” He puts on his white shorts too. 

Itachi shakes his head. “You know that you can talk to me about anything, right? Your ni-san will always be here for you. Always.” Sasuke vigorously nods his head up and down. He knows that Itachi will always look out for him--that’s just who his older brother is. Itachi smiles, and playfully flicks his forehead. “Come on. Mother will yell at us if we’re late.”

Mikoto is waiting for them with Naruto at the front entrance of the house. Nartuto’s wearing a black jacket that’s specially made for him: an Uchiha crest on his right shoulder and an Uzumaki crest on his left. Mikoto’s wearing a spring dress with pearls. She really wants to impress the other parents as the wife of the Hokage. Itachi sees the pair, and raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Mother, how did you dress Naruto so fast?”

Mikoto smiles and pats Naruto’s head. “It’s called a mother’s intuition.”

Naruto gives Itachi and Sasuke a teeth baring smile, and puts his hands behind his head in a stretch. “Beat ya, haha.”

Sasuke’s mouth twitches up into a grin. “Yeah, well, you won’t beat us tomorrow. We’ll be faster. Right, ni-chan?” Itachi shakes his head at his little brothers’ antics. Naruto’s the only person to bring competitiveness out of Sasuke’s aloof demeanor.

“Sure, Sasuke. We’ll be sure to beat them tomorrow.”

“Okay, we need to go now,” Mikoto tells her sons while clapping. “Itachi, are you coming with us? Don’t you have a mission today?”

Itachi shakes his head. “My mission’s not until the afternoon. I’ll come with you guys.”

Naruto’s smile beams even brighter; he puts his hands up in the air, and jumps up. “Yay, ni-chan’s coming to drop us off.” Sasuke’s smile just widens a miniscule amount; however, Itachi notices all the same. 

They start their trek from the Uchiha district to the Academy. Mikoto walks elegantly with her purse hanging from her right arm; Itachi walks gently and quietly--as expected from a skilled ninja; Naruto swings his arms in big half circles with every step, his mind imagining all of the friends he’s about to make; Sasuke looks at the ground as he walks, his hands stay still, embedded in his pockets. When they reach the exit of the Uchiha district, Shisui is there like he’s waiting for them. Shisui waves at the congregation and greets them with a “Yo!”

Itachi’s the first to greet his older-brother-like figure. “Hey, Shisui-ni-san. It’s Naruto and Sasuke’s first day at the Academy.” Naruto grins and waves widely at him, while Sasuke gives a couple short waves.

“I know, that’s why I’m here,” Shisui says. “I wanted to congratulate you two on being accepted to the Academy. Make the Clan proud, but remember to be yourselves.”

“Me and Sasuke are gonna get the top exam scores on every exam,” proclaims Naruto. “Believe it, Shisui-ni-chan!” Sasuke smiles, and gives a nod of affirmation. 

“I’ll take your word for it, Naruto-kun. Just remember not to get into too much trouble,” Shisui pauses for a moment before adding with a wink, “and if you do cause trouble, make sure you don’t get caught.”

Mikoto gasps, “Shisui-kun!” she exclaims as she playfully hits him on the arm. Itachi shakes his head at his older “brother”. 

“I was only kidding, Aunty Mikoto,” Shisui says in defense. He leans into Naruto and Sasuke and says, “I wasn’t,” in a stage whisper. Mikoto shakes her head in mock disapproval. 

“If you’re done corrupting my boys,” she jokes, “we need to go, Shisui-kun. We don’t want to be late.” She shifts her weight to her other hip, raising an eyebrow in a challenge.

“Of course. Of course,” Shisui says, backing down from awakening the terror that can be Uchiha Mikoto, “Well, I’ll see you all later. Itachi, wanna hang out after your mission?” he asks.

“Sure,” Itachi responds. “But I’m sure these two want to come with us as well.” Naruto starts nodding his head with the activeness of a six year old, and Sasuke nods his head twice. 

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Shisui confirms. “You know what they say: The more the merrier.”


	5. First Day at the Academy: Part One

There’s a small crowd of parent and soon-to-be students that surround the front of the Academy. Naruto visibly gets more and more excited as he sees more and more people, while Sasuke visibly deflates. When they get to the front of the school, Mikoto pulls Naruto and Sasuke into a group hug. “I’m so proud of you boys. Make sure to listen to your sensei, and make lots of friends, got it?”

Naruto chuckles. “I don’t know about the sensei part, but I’ll make tons of friends.”

Sasuke says more quietly, “I’ll listen to my sensei, but I don’t know if I’ll make any friends.” Itachi flicks him on the forehead once again. Sasuke pouts and rubs it. “Ow, what was that for, ni-chan?” 

“Don’t be such a pessimist, Sasuke. I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends as well.” 

“If you say so,” Sasuke mutters. He doesn’t really know what “pessimist” means, but it’s probably something not good. He’s still not convinced anybody would want to talk to him. He’s not exactly as approachable as Naruto is. Naruto just has something about him that makes people want to talk to him. People always tell Sasuke that he looks disinterested or bored; but, that’s just how his face is. One day he tried to smile as much as Naruto does, but his face got tired after two hours. People also kept saying he looked weird. 

“Ok boys, go join the other kids gathering in the courtyard. Your father’s going to give a speech, and then you’ll have your first class session.” Mikoto gives them each one last hug before Itachi stands in front of the both of them and playfully flicks both of their foreheads with his middle fingers.

“Have fun on your first day, you two.” Naruto and Sasuke nod before making their way towards their new classmates. Naruto immediately finds Shikamaru and Choji, hightailing to stand next to them. Sasuke finds himself standing next to a girl with long pink hair on his left, and a girl with dark short hair and white eyes on his right. 

The pink-haired girl immediately introduces herself. “Nice to meet you! My name’s Haruno Sakura. What’s your name?”

Sasuke flusters slightly. He didn’t expect anybody to start talking to him. “I’m Uchiha Sasuke,” he more or less mutters. “Nice to meet you too.” Nonetheless, the pink-haired girl--Sakura is her name--looks pleased. 

Sakura leans forward a little, and tells the white-eyed girl, “Hinata, why don’t you introduce yourself to Sasuke-kun too?” Both, Sasuke and Hintata, visibly fluster. Sasuke wonders where the “kun” came from. Sasuke is dying on the inside having to talk to people. The image of Naruto a couple people away talking to everybody he absolutely can is the only thing keeping Sasuke from going back into his shell and hiding.

“Hello,” the Hinata girl practically whispers, “I’m Hyuga Hinata.” Sakura shakes her head. She can’t see why the two are acting so shy. They’re about to be classmates that have to spend hours on end with each other, they should get along at least.

Sasuke and Hinata are spared from more awkwardness when Fugaku steps onto the center platform. He scans the sea of new students when he notices Naruto and Sasuke standing apart from each other; however, he makes no mention of it. He’s there to give a speech that can possibly alter the work ethic of dozens of aspiring shinobi. He stands before the podium, his hatori flowing in the morning wind. 

He waits for the six year olds to be quiet before he begins his long-winded speech. “Good morning,” he starts, and waits for a return chorus of “good mornings” in response, “if you don’t already know, I am the Fifth Hokage. I am the top shinobi of the Village and shall be respected as such. All of you standing before me are about to embark on a journey full of laughter and tears. Full of wins and losses. Full of friends and people you don’t necessarily agree with. Whenever you walk onto the school campus, remember this: You are part of the next generation of shinobi. You must love this Village and everybody that lives in it. You must be ready to endure training and studying for the sake of defending this Village. You must have a healthy body, mind, and soul, in order to endure through any hardship. You must possess these three things in order to be Academy students, and since you all are standing before me today, you already possess them. Remember that. All of you already possess the qualities needed to be Academy students, so don’t falter, don’t lose your way. Embody the Will of Fire that you will inherit from your senpai, sensei, classmates, and senior ninja. I hope for your success, and hope to work with all of you in the future as a full-fledged ninja.”

The gathering of students clap for him, even if some of them don’t quite understand what Fugaku was saying. Sasuke understands each and every word; he wants to do his best at the Academy to make Mikoto, Fugaku, and Itachi proud. Fugaku steps off the platform, as a teacher corrales the students to their respective teachers. Eventually, Sasuke finds himself in a classroom sitting in between Hinata and Sakura. Naruto’s sitting in the row in front of him with Choji and Shikamaru. The row behind him sits a blond girl, a boy with an oversized jacket with sunglasses, and an empty seat.

“Good morning everybody,” the teacher in the front says. He has a scar that runs across the bridge of his nose, and dark hair pulled up in a ponytail. “My name’s Iruka-sensei, and I will be your homeroom teacher until you graduate. So I hope we can get along just fine. Since we’re going to be together for so long, why don’t we each say our name, and what one of our goals are. Who knows, maybe some of us will achieve our goals before graduation. I’ll go first: I’m Iruka-sensei, and I want to have a fun school year with all of you. Now, how about we start with you.”

Honestly, Sasuke doesn’t really care about most of the responses. He zones out until he hears Naruto’s characteristically booming voice. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto, and I want to be Hokage! My adopted Dad’s already the Fifth Hokage, and my other Dad was the Fourth. So obvious that means I’m going to be the Sixth!” Murmurs between classmates immediately starts. Things from the boys such as “Is he really the son of two Hokages?” and from the girls “He’s soooo cute! Just look at his smile!”

Sakura turns towards Sasuke. “Is he really Lord Fifth’s son? Isn’t Lord Fifth from your clan: the Uchiha?” Before Sasuke has a chance to respond the next person starts talking.

“I’m Nara Shikamaru, and I want to go home and lie down,” he says with a yawn. The entire class bursts with laughter, while Iruka just shakes his head.

“I’m Akimichi Choji, and I want to try every type of meat at Barbe-Q.” More people go, and Sasuke zones out again until Sakura starts talking next to him.

“I’m Haruno Sakura, and I want to become a strong kunoichi like Senju Tsunade.” Sasuke is about to zone out again when he suddenly realizes it’s his turn.

“Um, I’m Uchiha Sasuke, and I want…” What does he want? He wants to be a ninja, but everybody here wants to be a ninja. He looks around the classroom and sees everybody looking at him expectantly. His mind goes blank. He notices Naruto gives him two thumbs up, but that doesn’t help him come up with anything.

After an awkward silence, Iruka jumps in, “Let’s see. Since Naruto-kun’s your brother and wants to become Hokage, do you want to become Captain of the Leaf Police Force, Sasuke-kun?”

“Um, sure. I’m Uchiha Sasuke, and I want to become Captain of the Leaf Police Force.” No he doesn’t. Why did he even say that? Itachi’s going to become Captain. What does Sasuke want? He lets out a small breath of relief, and notices Sakura staring at him with her head cocked to the side when he glances at her. He looks away just in time to hear Hinata talk.

“I’m Hyuga Hinata, and I want to become a strong shinobi to protect those I love,” she practically whispers. The entire room leaned in closer in an attempt to hear her, and even Sasuke struggled, sitting right next to the girl. 

Iruka cups a hand to his ear, and asks Hinata to repeat what she says, “Um, I’m Hyuga Hinata, and I want to become a strong shinobi.” Iruka still seems confused, but he nods his head anyway and asks the next person to go.

Sakura leans over Sasuke, and whispers to Hinata, “You need to speak up next time. I don’t think anybody heard you.” Hinata slightly nods her head, while Sasuke’s feels his face heating up at Sakura’s close proximity; Sakura doesn’t seem to notice. 

“I’m Yamanaka Ino, and,” she flips her hair, “I want to date a certain person.” Sasuke turns in his seat, and notices Ino looking directly at Naruto; Naruto doesn’t seem to notice.

Iruka looks surprised, and says with an awkward laugh, “I think you all are a little too young to be dating. Anyways, there’s two people left on my roster, but only one person left in the room. Can you go ahead so I can figure out who the missing person is?”

“Of course,” the kid with the sunglasses starts, “that’s because I’m the only one in the room who hasn’t gone yet. I’m Abrurame Shino, and I want to make friends with everybody in this room.” The kids in the front of the room look confused, but Iruka doesn’t make him repeat because he has bigger problems. 

“Does anybody here know a Sai? He’s on my roll call list, but he doesn’t seem to be in the classroom.” Iruka is met with a chorus of no’s and shaking heads. Suddenly the school bell rings. “Well that’s it for the morning session. Go have lunch, and then meet back in here when the bell rings again.” The school becomes a stampede of friends wanting to eat with friends, except for a lonely boy sitting on a swing set just outside the school.


	6. First Day at the Academy: Part Two

Sakura insists on eating lunch with Sasuke and Hinata. When the trio are about to leave the classroom, Ino and Shino insist on eating with Sakura, who insists on eating with Sasuke and Hinata. In a weird twist of fate, the people repellant, Sasuke, ends up eating lunch with a group bigger than Naruto’s. Sasuke opens his bento in a circle consisting of himself, Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Shino; Naruto eats with Choji, Shikamaru, and Kiba. When Sasuke is munching on an omusubi (his favorite), Ino starts asking him about Naruto. “So I heard that you two were brothers, what is he like at home?”

Sasuke really doesn’t want to answer her, but Hinata sitting beside him, timidly says that she wants to know as well. “Well,” Sasuke starts. He has the entire circle’s attention now. “He’s loud. He likes talking to people. And he really likes ramen.” 

Ino starts squealing. “Oh, not only is he cute, but he seems just perfect!” 

Sakura has a disgusted look on her face staring at Ino. “You just like him ‘cause you think he’s cute, Ino.” That sparks an argument between the two over the merits of Ino’s sincerity. Hinata looks embarrassed--like she’s hearing some private conversation she isn’t supposed to hear. Shino completely ignores the argument. 

Sasuke doesn’t get the big deal of dating somebody. Sure, he thinks some people look good--he quickly glances at Sakura--but it’s nothing to obsess over. When his Mom asked if he had any girl friends (with a space), he just bluntly told her no. When he asked why it mattered, she just said he’ll understand when he’s older. Well, he is older now, he’s a full six years old, but he still doesn’t understand. But now when she asks, he has to say yes. He hopes she doesn’t make a big deal over it.

When Sakura and Ino finally stop bickering, Sasuke starts getting up. “I need to use the bathroom; I’ll be right back.” The group nods, and starts getting into side conversations. Only Sakura really pays him much attention, and waves him away. Sakura is really nice, he thinks as he tries to find a bathroom.  
\---  
Naruto and Choji are laughing hysterically at a joke Kiba just told, while Shikamaru just grins and shakes his head. When Naruto calms down, he notices Sasuke sitting in a group with three girls. He takes note to express his disapproval to Sasuke later. Girls are nasty: They have cooties. Naruto doesn’t want his brother to get infected and turn into a girl. Naruto likes having two brothers--he can’t even imagine being an only child. Naruto always kind of knew that he was different from his family. In a family with all black hair, it doesn’t take a genius to realize his blond hair is special; additionally, he has a different family name from them. But his parents have never treated him any different from his two older brothers. So, Naruto loves his family with all his heart. He doesn’t want his brother to get infected with cooties. 

“Naruto. Hey, Naruto,” Shikamaru calls out to him. “Are you alright? You’re awfully quiet.”

“Yeah,” Naruto assures him, “I’m okay. I’m just thinking about somethin’.” 

Shikamaru laughs. “I didn’t know you could think.” And once again the group--Naruto, Choji, Shikamaru, and Kiba--breaks into a fit of laughter.  
\---  
Sasuke finally finds the restroom after a couple minutes of searching, but the problem he has now is how to get back. Sasuke tries retracing his steps when he finds himself at the front of the school. There he finds a pale boy, with straight dark hair, swinging alone. He doesn’t really want to reach out to him, but he remembers how Sakura reached out to him, and how good he felt eating lunch with other people. Sasuke bites the bullet and starts walking towards the swing set boy. “Hello,” Sasuke says when he gets close enough. The swing set boy looks up, and he has a dead look in his eyes. He’s looking at Sasuke, but he’s not seeing anything. Sasuke is deterred, but he tries again regardless, this time with a friendly wave, “Hello. I’m Uchiha Sasuke. What’s your name?”

The boy whispers something, but Sasuke doesn’t quite catch it. When Sasuke asks him to repeat what he said, Sasuke hears a faint “Sai.” So this is the boy Iruka was looking for. Sasuke asks him, “Why weren’t you in class today?”

Sai responds without making eye-contact, “Because I didn’t want to go.”

Sasuke cocks his head to the side in a questioning gesture. “But won’t your parents be sad that you didn’t go to class?” Sasuke knows his parents would be furious if he didn’t attend class: His Mom would yell at him, and his Dad would give a silent disapproving nod. He mentally shutters at the thought.

Sai looks Sasuke directly in the eyes. “My parents don’t care about me. They’re not my real parents.” Sasuke is utterly confused by this. Fugaku and Mikoto aren’t Naruto’s “real” parents, but they still care for him. Aren’t parents supposed to care for their parents no matter what? If Sasuke’s parents didn’t care for him, who would? The answer to that question comes obviously to Sasuke.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters? Do they care for you?” Sasuke innocently asks.

“My brother isn’t here anymore, and I don’t have any sisters.” Sai seems like he’s about to cry. His eyes are tearing up; his lip starts quivering; he starts sniffling. Sasuke rummages through his mind for what his older brother did whenever he started crying. Whenever Sasuke starts crying, Itachi would ruffle his hair with his hand. So, Sasuke does just that. He lifts his hand, and starts ruffling his hair. Sai visibly flinches. “What are you doing?” he asks, scared of Sasuke’s intentions. 

“I’m making you feel better. Whenever I start crying, my ni-chan would mess up my hair, and I would start feeling better,” Sasuke explains like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Realization dawns upon Sai: Sasuke isn’t here to hurt him, he can rest easy. 

“Yeah, my ni-san would do the same,” Sai says, wiping away his tears. Then, Sasuke wordlessly gets behind Sai, and starts pushing the swing set to make Sai swing. Sasuke starts pushing harder and harder until he hears Sai laughing. Sai has to hang on to the rope connecting the seat to the tree because his swing arcs widen into full semicircles. This is the most fun Sai has had in a long time. 

Eventually, the school bell rings, and Sasuke helps Sai find their classroom. When they walk in, they’re the first ones there, and Sasuke explains to Iruka-sensei that the kid he brings is the missing student. Iruka beckons Sai to the teachers desk, while Sasuke goes sit at his desk hoping that his classmates--or friends?--bring back his bento box because he didn’t have time to grab it, and he doesn’t want his Mom to get mad. His classmates come streaming back into the classroom along with relief because Sasuke spots Sakura carrying his bento box with her. When Sakura sets the box in front of him, he expresses his thanks, telling her, “Thank you, Sakura-chan,” and she seems taken aback. 

Sakura asks him where he was, and he replies, “I was playing with Sai at the swing set,” pointing at Sai at Iruka-sensei’s desk. Sakura follows his finger, and when Sai notices, he waves back at the pair. He seems much happier than before. 

When the second bell rings, Iruka addresses the class, “Why don’t you all start getting to know the people around you? It will only be for a few minutes, but I have something to take care of right now.” Iruka signals Sai to go sit at the empty desk next to Ino, and leaves the classroom. A few minutes later, a bored looking teacher comes in, and wordlessly sits at the teacher’s desk. Soft murmurs of conversation immediately start around the classroom.

“Hey, Sasuke-kun, do you really want to become Police Captain? You didn’t seem that interested when Iruka-sensei asked.” Sakura asks him with a tilted head. 

He thinks about his answer when another, softer voice, starts talking too, “Yeah, I noticed the same thing, Sasuke-kun.” Hinata echoes the same sentiment as Sakura. Hinata knows what it’s like to be forced into something because you’re too shy or timid to come up with an alternative. “Do you have a goal that you actually want?”

Sasuke doesn’t really know. Itachi will become Captain of the Police Force; Naruto will become Hokage; where does that leave him? What about any smaller goals that he wants. Sasuke wants to become a master shinobi to impress his family and Clan, but Shisui always tells him to live for himself. Sasuke doesn’t truly have any personal goals. When he fails to give an answer in a suitable amount of time, Sakura puts her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry Sasuke-kun, your friends will help you come up with a goal before we graduate!” 

Sasuke looks around him: he feels Sakura’s hand on his shoulder; he sees Hinata giving him a small thumbs up; he hears Sai and Ino arguing about something; he smells Naruto and his posse sneaking snacks in the classroom; he tastes the food that Shino let him try during lunch. He senses that he’s going to be alright being in a class with these people--with these friends that he made. He gives Sakura a resolute smile.


	7. A Mother and Brother's Advice

Naruto is bored. He’s beyond bored. It’s the first day of class in their first year of school, and Iruka-sensei is already assigning their first required reading. Naruto doesn’t want to read. He wants to fight; he wants to practice his taijutsu. Naruto thinks he’s pretty close to beating Itachi in a taijutsu spar, but what he doesn’t know is that Itachi goes easy on him. Itachi only uses an ounce of his skill when sparring with Sasuke and Naruto: He would never want to send either to the hospital.

Naruto and Shikamaru are seeing who can balance a pencil on their upper lip the longest, when the school bell finally rings. Iruka dismisses his students, and Naruto grabs his school bag and runs out of the classroom. Who knew that school would be so boring? Itachi and Shisui always made school out to be fun, where they brawled their classmates and whatnot. Maybe it was because they both graduated early. Well, Naruto can graduate early too. He’s going to become Hokage someday. He just doesn’t realize that there’s a new rule banning students from graduating early.

Naruto waits at the school gate for Sasuke with his hands behind his head in a stretch. Naruto has never sat that much in his life. Sasuke finally shows up, but he’s still talking to those girls. Naruto looks at them in disdain. The moment the trio gets close enough, Naruto grabs Sasuke by the hand and says, “Come on, Sasuke. Let’s go home already.” Naruto drags them down the street at a quickened pace. Sakura and Hinata look at the retreating duo in surprise. Sakura was going to ask Sasuke to walk home with her, and Hinata didn’t get a chance to say bye to Sasuke.

When the Academy is no longer in sight, Sasuke rips his hand out of Naruto’s grasp. The duo stops walking. “Hey, what’s the big idea?” Sasuke learned that phrase in a book he read, and is internally proud using it. Naruto isn’t impressed. 

“Why are you hanging out with those girls? Stop hanging out with them, and tomorrow you should eat lunch with me, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba. I think you’ll like Kiba. He’s pretty funny.”

Sasuke almost mutters, “Shino’s not a girl,” but thinks better of it. He actually says, “I can hang out with whoever I want. You’re not the boss of me.”

Naruto is visibly taken aback. They always had the same friends. If Naruto gave somebody the silent treatment, Sasuke gave them the silent treatment too. If Sasuke didn’t like somebody for whatever reason, Naruto didn’t like them either. Itachi would always call them siamese twins, or say they were joint at the hip. Naruto starts saying, “Yeah, well,” but he doesn’t know what else to say. Sasuke crosses his arms, waiting for Naruto’s response. Naruto finally finds his words, “Yeah, well, see if I care. Go hang out with those nasty girls and catch cooties.” Naruto crosses his arms out of stubbornness as well.

Sasuke looks confused. “Huh? You just said not to hang out with them. What do you want, Naruto?” Naruto looks up at the sky trying to recall the words he just said. Oops. Well, Shisui always says that words can’t be taken back, so he just runs with it.

“You heard me. Go hang out with them! See if I care.” Sasuke turns his head to look away from him, and Naruto turns his head in the other direction to do the same. After a few beats, the both of them simultaneously start walking home without another word. Whenever Naruto believes Sasuke isn’t looking, he glances at him and quickly looks away. Whenever Sasuke thinks Naruto isn’t looking, he does much the same.  
\---  
When the duo gets home, they say, “We’re home,” without much enthusiasm at all. Immediately, Mikoto peaks her head from the kitchen to the front entrance to see what’s wrong. Mikoto spent the last thirty minutes baking cookies to present them with their first after school snack, just to get an unenthusiastic “we’re back” from her two baby boys? She expected way more pizazz. More energy. More of anything really, especially from Naruto. She has some investigating to do.

Naruto enters the dining room, and immediately brightens up at the sight of cookies. Naruto reaches to get one before Mikoto grabs his hand. “Where’s your brother, Naruto? You should wait for him at least.” 

Naruto’s expression scours. “He went to his room or somethin’. I don’t care.” Mikoto is beyond surprised: The Naruto she knows always cares about Sasuke. She raises her left eyebrow expectantly, but Naruto just shrugs his shoulders and pouts. “Can I have a cookie now?” Mikoto sighs heavily before saying a quick “fine” before making her way to Sasuke’s room. She stops just outside his room, when she hears Sasuke’s muted voice through the door. He’s saying something like, “Stupid Naruto, stupid,” and the sound of something soft being kicked. Deep down, Mikoto thinks her middle child looks really cute when he’s mad, but now's not the time to think such things. She has two children to reconcile. 

Mikoto knocks on Sasuke’s door and calls out, “It’s me, Sasuke. I’m coming in.” Mikoto has to stifle a laugh when she comes in: She’s greeted with Sasuke repeatedly kicking a coiled up, giant stuffed snake--one that Orochimaru was so gracious enough to gift him on his third birthday--in the corner of room, saying, “Stupid Naruto, stupid,” like it’s his life’s mantra. Considering it’s Naruto, Mikoto wouldn’t be surprised if it really is his life mantra. Sasuke gives one last really hard kick, and this time Mikoto really does laugh because he knocked himself off balance and fell to the ground on his behind.

Mikoto hastefully makes her way to make sure Sasuke’s okay, and shakes her head. “Sasuke dear, just what are you doing? Calling Naruto stupid isn’t nice.”

Sasuke pouts, and crosses his arms. “I’m calling him stupid because he’s stupid.” Mikoto isn’t amused. Well, she’s slightly amused. Seeing Sasuke all pouty and mad like this is a rare sight. Sasuke usually embodies stoicism, even at such a young age. 

“Sasuke,” Mikoto starts again, “please, help me understand. What did Naruto do?”

Sasuke looks at his clenched fists. He mutters something, and Mikoto has to ask him to repeat. “He told me not to hang out with my friends anymore.” Mikoto is less amused, now, and more perplexed. Don’t her two sons have the same friends? How much can happen in the timespan of a day?

“Why would he say that?” Mikoto asks the pouting Sasuke. He’s still looking at his clenched fist and mutters again. “Sasuke, nobody’s ever going to understand you if you keep on muttering like that.”

“Because they’re girls,” Sasuke says in a shout that's not characteristic of him. He starts shaking slightly, finally looks up from his clenched fists into Mikoto’s eyes, and reiterates, “He told me not to hang out with my friends anymore because they’re girls, and he called them nasty.” Mikoto’s eyes widen into saucers, she doesn’t even have it in her to tease him about befriending girls or remind herself to reprimand Naruto. She’s staring into her six year old Sasuke’s newly acquired Sharingan. Sharingan appear during a burst of intense emotion, and apparently Sasuke’s first real fight with his younger brother is enough to awaken his Sharingan. Mikoto pulls him into a hug, and wipes away his tears. 

Mikoto tells him, “Then you should tell Naruto that it’s okay for you to have girl friends.” She makes sure to really emphasize the space between “girl” and “friend”. This is a serious conversation, she reminds herself. It’s serious enough to make stoic little Sasuke cry, and awaken his Sharingan. She will not ruin the moment. Sasuke looks up into her eyes again, and nods his head. Okay, she will not ruin the mood right now, she resolves herself again, but dinner time’s a different story.  
\---  
Itachi opens the front door, and says the usual, “I’m home,” but in place of a returning, “Welcome home,” he’s met with radio silence. He walks into the dining room, and sees a moody looking Naruto eating some homemade cookies. Itachi scans around the room, but finds nobody else in there; although, he does sense Mikoto and Sasuke in Sasuke’s room.“Why are you sitting alone? Where’s Mother and Sasuke?” he asks, wanting to confirm even though he’s usually never wrong.

Naruto keeps on munching on a cookie. “I don’t know. They’re probably in Sasuke’s room or something.” Itachi sits down across from Naruto, and takes a cookie to start eating as well; he always had a sweet tooth, and he’s completely famished from his mission. The cookie tastes like pure bliss. 

“Care to tell me why they’re in there and not eating cookies with you?” Naruto looks unwilling to spill the truth, but he can’t resist a request from his dear older brother. He takes a bite, and mutters something with his mouth full. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Itachi corrects. “And speak up. If you mutter like that, people won’t understand you. Words are the most powerful thing a shinobi has: Just ask Shisui-ne-san about ‘talk no jutsu’.” 

Naruto nods his head, swallows, and tries again. “Me and Sasuke got into a fight today.” Itachi raises his eyebrows before realizing he meant a verbal fight, not a physical one, judging from Naruto’s appearance. 

“Well, did you two make up? That’s a very important part about fights between friends--probably the most important part,” Itachi says before finishing his third cookie without even realizing it. Naruto looks embarrassed before shaking his head “no”. “Well, what did you two fight about in the first place? I can’t even imagine something the two of you would fight over,” he says as he gets up to get a glass of milk: Itachi is more mature than other twelve year olds in every way possible, except for maybe his taste buds. 

Naruto rubs the back of his neck, and says, “I told him not to hang out with his friends anymore.” Don’t they have the same friends?, Itachi thinks. He looks at Naruto expectantly so he can elaborate. Naruto gulps. “It’s because he’s friends with girls.” And he says “girls” like it’s the most vile thing in the world. Itachi gulps down his milk before pouring a second cup. His mission was hard.

“You know Mother’s a girl, right? So is Nekobaa and Tamaki-chan from Sora-ku.”

“Yeah, but--” Naruto tries to justify himself before getting interrupted. 

“But, what? There’s nothing wrong with befriending girls, Naruto. You two are getting older. It’s perfectly natural for you two to start making different friends. And stop eating cookies, you need to save room for dinner,” Itachi hypocritically admonishes.

“That’s right, Naruto dear. I know they taste amazing, but don’t stuff yourself with too many cookies, it’s not healthy. And welcome home Itachi, when did you get back?” Mikoto asks. She walks into the dining room with her hand on top of Sasuke’s head, who’s clinging onto her apron.

“Just now,” Itachi responds, and stares at Naruto expectantly, urging his will onto him about apologizing. Sasuke comes out from behind Mikoto, and Naruto stands up with his hands behind his back. 

“Naruto--” 

“Sasuke--” they both start simultaneously, and recoil back. Mikoto and Itachi both look down, and shake their heads--perfect mirror images of each other. 

Mikoto rubs her eyes. She’s a trained ninja, but she doesn’t know when she became a counselor. “Sasuke, why don’t you go first?” 

“Um,” he looks unsure, so he looks up at Mikoto where he receives an encouraging nod, “I don’t like it when you make fun of my friends, Naruto. Sakura, Hinata, and Ino aren’t nasty.” Itachi raises his left eyebrow. Naruto never said anything about any nastiness. He makes a mental note to teach Naruto that lies of omission are still lies. Unbeknownst to her three sons, Mikoto is mentally squealing while still maintaining her “serious mom” face: She’s trying to imagine what Sakura, Hinata, and Ino look like.

“Yeah. You’re right. I’m sorry for calling them nasty. It’s okay to be friends with girls, I guess,” Naruto says back with a wide grin. Sasuke smiles back, and the two take a large step towards each other. They give each other a high-five with all of their strength: A sign of their eternal friendship and brotherhood. 

Mikoto walks over to Naruto, and gives him an earful over respecting girls. Itachi strides over to Sasuke and ruffles the six year old’s hair. Itachi noticed the telltale marks that he had been crying: dry streaks under his puffy bloodshot eyes. It’s his job as his ni-san to help make him feel better. And when Itachi notices Naruto taking most of Mikoto’s attention, he snatches a cookie from the dining table, and hands it over to Sasuke. “You should try it before Naruto and I eat the rest of them,” Itachi tells Sasuke with a wink. Sasuke smiles, and nibbles on the cookie, content with letting Naruto and Itachi eat the rest if they want.


	8. Dinnertime and Itachi Learns Something New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, I realize that Naruto and Sasuke’s argument from last chapter was kind of stupid because I forgot to make Naruto explicitly tell Sasuke not to hang out with Sakura, Hinata, and Ino. I corrected it. Second, I want to thank everybody that wrote a comment, given a kudos, and/or has even read this far. You da best.

Mikoto sits on the outside patio, staring at the carefree koi in the pond. She was bored today. All of her boys were off doing their own thing, and she went to get tea with some of the neighborhood moms. It wasn’t not enjoyable, per se, but she can’t imagine doing just that for the rest of her life. She might actually have to start going on missions again just to keep her sanity in check. Suddenly, Itachi appears next to her and sits down. “Is something bothering you, Mother? You seem distraught.”

Mikoto sighs deeply, and turns toward her son. “I was so bored today, Itachi dear. I was just thinking if I should start taking missions again.”

Itachi hums, and says, “Well, you were the only one home today, without Naruto home, I can imagine how eerily quiet it must have been. Maybe you can ask Father for some lower ranked missions to ease back into ninjahood.” Mikoto smiles at her oldest son: He was always so thoughtful and considerate towards others. He would truly make a wonderful next head of the Clan. 

“You know,” Mikoto starts, “I used to be an amazing ninja. Then I got pregnant with you, and had to resign… No hard feelings of course,” she finishes with a cheeky smile. 

Itachi smiles back. “I know. I actually asked some of my Anbu squad mates about you. Apparently you were a master of shurikenjutsu and were called ‘Lady Hawkeye’ because you never missed a shot.” Mikoto gets a nostalgic look on her face. That was a time before she was married. That was a time before she was an Uchiha. Mikoto wasn’t born into a noble clan, so as a ninja she fought for herself, and her Village. She never understood how the noble clans of the Leaf weathered through the storm of history for so long until she married into the Uchihas: Those in a clan fight for each other, tooth and nail; they have a bond stronger than family; they have a bond weaved together from years of ancient history and shared blood. 

Suddenly, Mikoto remembers that she wanted to talk to Itachi about something. “Itachi dear, can you do me a favor?” She knows that he won’t refuse. Itachi has a heart of pure gold, and his feelings for his family are as heavy as lead, and as shiny as diamonds.

“Of course,” Itachi automatically responds with. He would be willing to do anything for his family. Anything. 

“Can you talk with Sasuke,” she asks, specifically phrasing it as a question so he has another chance to refuse--she knows he won’t. Itachi nods his head as a wordless “about what?” Mikoto takes a deep breath, and says, “Sasuke awakened his Sharingan earlier, and he needs guidance on how to properly use it. I know that your dad is the one that really should talk to him about it, but he’s just so busy with the Village, and--”

Itachi interrupts her before she can give anymore reasons. “I understand, Mother. I’ll talk to him about it later in the evening when we hang out with Shisui.”

Mikoto gives him a grateful smile. “You're so understanding, Itachi. Sasuke and Naruto are so lucky to have a brother like you.” What goes unsaid is that she’s lucky to have him as a son. 

Itachi shakes his head. “It’s only because you and Father raised me like you did.”

Mikoto puts her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll still bring it up at dinner so your dad and Naruto know about his Sharingan too. What worries me is that I think Naruto believes he has the chance to awaken the Sharingan too. I don’t want Naruto to feel like he’s getting left behind, but he has to know.” Naruto looks up so much to Fugaku and Itachi. The little blond bundle of energy never explicitly brought up his want to awaken his own Sharingan, but Mikoto fears that the hope might be in him, along with a brewing disappointment when he learns it’s impossible for him to do so. 

Itachi smiles. “I’ll talk to Naruto about it too with Shisui. Stop worrying, Mother. Worrying ages people faster than normal.” 

Mikoto playfully smacks him on the arm, and jokes, “Are you calling your own mom old, Itachi? I’ll have you know that I am as young as the blooming flowers during spring.”

Itachi laughs. “I know, Mother. I know.” And with that Itachi goes back to his room to read an interesting little book that he found on his way back home from his mission. It’s called _Icha Icha Paradise_ , and it’s written by one of the great Sannin--Jiraiya, the Great Toad Sage. Itachi thought that it would have battle strategies or something, considering it was written by Jiraiya himself, but every page just has the poor boy more and more confused. Itachi reminds himself to ask Shisui about the book later.  
\---  
Fugaku dies a little on the inside when Orochimaru brings in another stack of papers to pile onto his desk. The sadistic smirk on Orochimaru’s face makes Fugaku die a lot on the inside. “Hokage-sama, these are all mission requests that you need to review and sign off on. Remember, you need to read each individual one, and make sure that it is an appropriate mission for the Leaf to undertake.”

Fugaku scratches his head. “Why didn’t you review them, and just let me sign the ones that seem appropriate, Orochimaru? You have a very discerning eye; I’ll bet that you can do this task even better than I can.” Fugaku leans back on his chair, crossing his arms.

Orochimaru laughs, and says, “But Hokage-sama, how will I get any pleasure in doing that? I take my mental health very seriously. I work too hard, so I thought that I should take a break and do what I love.”

“And what exactly is it that you love, Orochimaru?”

“Watching others suffer,” he says bluntly, “And I would get to work if I were you, Hokage-sama. If you don’t start now, you might not make it to dinner. You already missed dinner twice this week, and today was your kids’ first day of school. They probably have many interesting things they want to tell their father.” Orochimaru sits at a couch in front of the Hokage’s desk, and pulls out a magazine from the inside of his jacket. Fugaku shakes his head and starts reading through the requests. Fugaku would never admit it, but Orochimaru is the best aid he could have ever asked for: Every single one of the requests already has either a little purple checkmark or an “x”.  
\---  
Fugaku makes it home just in time for dinner. When he walks into the living room, Naruto and Sasuke are already seated at the table, talking about whatever they talk to each other about. Mikoto and Itachi are busy in the kitchen, making final touches on their dinner. All four of them greet him home, and he goes to sit at the head of the table. He eavesdrops on Naruto and Sasuke’s conversation, and hears Sasuke gushing over the assigned reading, trying to convince Naruto that it’s an interesting book, even though Naruto has a very disgusted look on his face. Mikoto and Itachi bring over their meal to the dining table, and the family starts eating. Dinner starts in an amicable silence before Mikoto brings up a very important event from the day. “You know honey, Naruto and Sasuke got into a fight today.”

Naruto immediately looks at Mikoto with wide eyes: He really thought that they were going to hide it from Fugaku. Fugaku simply raises an eyebrow, and inquires, “Oh? What could you two have possibly fought about?” Naruto looks away, embarrassed. 

Sasuke looks Fugaku directly in the eyes, and answers, “He told me not to hang out with my friends anymore, and called then nasty.” Fugaku’s eyebrows shoot up. Naruto refuses to look in his direction, rubbing the back of his neck in nervousness. 

Fugaku swallows a bit of salmon and rice before asking, “And was there a reason for you to say that, Naruto?” Fugaku sips some miso soup, waiting for Naruto’s response, but he’s met with radio silence. Fugaku notices Itachi fidget in his seat, when Naruto mutters an “ow” and magically starts talking. 

“I told him not to hang out with his friends because they were girls, and I called them nasty because I thought they had cooties.” Naruto explains. Mikoto stifles a laugh at the word cooties, but neither Naruto nor Sasuke seem to notice their mom’s moment of loosened composure. Mikoto believes this is her time to jump in.

“Don’t worry Fugaku, I gave Naruto an earful about respecting girls.” Naruto has the good conscience to look embarrassed. 

“That’s good to hear,” Fugaku says to his wife. He doesn’t think it’s necessary to tell his family that he too believed in cooties in his youth. Some things are better left unsaid.

“Also, Sasuke awakened his Sharingan today because of said argument.” Fugaku’s eyes widen yet again: He never expected Sasuke to awaken his Sharingan so early. 

“I’m proud of you, son,” Fugaku says when Mikoto gives him a look that he assumes says not to divulge too deep in the topic. Sasuke beams as bright as the afternoon sun. 

“Anyways,” Mikoto begins with a cheshire grin. “We can talk about that later. Sasuke dear, why don’t you tell us about your new girl friends?” Of course, the boy’s only six, so Mikoto makes sure to leave a space between girl and friend. Sasuke’s chopstick stops midway to his mouth, and Itachi is amused ,looking forward to Sasuke’s interrogation session. Sasuke sputters for an answer; Mikoto notices and says, “Take your time, dear. There’s no rush.”

Sasuke thinks for a moment before finally saying, “Well, Sakura’s--”

Mikoto immediately interrupts. “What’s her family name?”

“Haruno, I think. Her name’s Haruno Sakura.” Mikoto and Fugaku both think for a second. Neither recognize “Haruno” as a ninja clan. 

“And what about the rest? You did say friends, right?” Mikoto says, stressing the “s” in friends.. 

“There’s also Hyuga Hinata, and Yamanka Ino.”

Mikoto and Fugaku recognize Hyuga, but there isn't a “Yamanka” in the Village. Fugaku ponders the noble clans for a moment before correcting Sasuke. “Do you mean Yamanaka?” Sasuke nods his head. Naruto seems wholly uninterested in all the talk about girls, but Mikoto suspects he’ll understand when he’s older. Well, he’ll probably understand, it’s okay if he never takes an interest in girls when he’s older too. 

Itachi jumps into the fray as well. “Sasuke, weren’t you saying something about Sakura?” Sasuke looks embarrassed before muttering something. Mikoto reminds him of what she said earlier about muttering when he speaks up.

“Sakura-chan’s really nice.” Mikoto looks giddy; Fugaku rolls his eyes in reaction to seeing his wife; Itachi seems happy that his brother found a nice friend; Naruto wonders what having girl friends must feel like, and if there’s any girls in his class that he can befriend; Sasuke looks abashed at admitting what he thought about Sakura. The family continues eating their dinner with peace talking.  
\---  
Shisui is practicing throwing kunais when Itachi and his brothers arrive at the Uchiha training grounds: Their designated meeting place. Shisui hits one last bullseye before greeting his fellow Uchiha clan members. “Yo! It’s an honor to have the Hokage’s family, slash the Uchiha head family, meet with humble, non-special me,” Shisui says with a smirk--knowing that Itachi hates being labeled with such titles. The two have spent many nights together, staring up into the vast starry night sky discussing everything from what it really means to be a ninja, to the more simpler things in life, like what the best restaurant in the Village is. 

Itachi shakes his head, already familiar with Shisui’s antics. “Shut up, Shisui-ni-san. Don’t give these two any ideas.” Itachi, nonetheless, still looks as amused as ever talking to Shisui with his honey-coated words. Naruto and Sasuke greet Shisui in place of Itachi’s lack of greeting--they’re close enough to never need such petty things as greetings. 

“Hey mini Itachi and ramen boy, how was your first day of school?” Sasuke pouts at the nickname, while Naruto seems entertained by the nickname given to him. The two six year olds respond with a “good” and Itachi rolls his eyes, taking note to tell Shisui of what transpired that day later in private. 

“Anyways, Shisui-ni-san, we need to have a talk with Sasuke about something before we start practicing,” Itachi says. 

Shisui raises his right eyebrow, voicing his concerns. “It’s about nothing bad I hope. I can’t imagine innocent little Sasuke getting into trouble. Well Naruto, he would be a different story.” 

Naruto yells an indignant “hey” while Itachi just continues like Shisui never said anything. “Well, Sasuke here has awakened his Sharingan, and our mother requests that we talk to him about it.” Shisui immediately perks up; he’s always wanted to give somebody the “Sharingan talk” as much as he wanted to give somebody the “birds and the bees talk”. Shisui kneels down in front of Sasuke, puts his hands on the boy’s shoulders, and puts on a mask of a serious demeanor. 

“Listen Sasuke, for what I’m about to say is very important,” he waits for Sasuke to nod his head before continuing. “As a friendly neighborhood spider was once told, ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’--”

Itachi immediately interrupts him with a hand covering his face. “What are you talking about, Shisui? Is this from another one of your ridiculous fantasy books?”

Shisui sees it as his responsibility to defend himself, and the merits of fantasy fiction. Sasuke and Naruto look wholly baffled by what two of their role models are talking about. Their argument eventually divulges into Shisui asking Itachi what he has read recently, and when Itachi responds with _Icha Icha Paradise_ , Shisui bursts into a fit of laughter. Itachi doesn’t look too amused, and Shisui whispers into his ear for a long while, to the confusement of Sasuke and Naruto. The longer Shisui whispers into his ear, Itachi blushes a deeper and deeper hue of red, finally learning about what the content of the book means. Shisui got to have one of his special talks, but the “Sharingan talk” would have to wait for another day, for the sun has set just under the horizon, and Mikoto is running towards the group of boys yelling at them to come home already.


	9. Itachi's Day Off

Itachi emerges from his room after a long night of ruminations, pondering and dreaming. He’s already prepared himself breakfast and is drinking coffee when he realizes it’s his day off. His days off only happen once in a blue moon, so he completely forgot Captain Kakashi and Yamato-senpai told him to take a break. Itachi decides to start making pancakes, since Naruto and Sasuke are supposed to wake up in 30 minutes. Itachi feels a presence behind him when he starts mixing the batter.

“Kakashi asked me to make sure you relax today. You should’ve just gone back to sleep, son.” Itachi looks behind him to see his father with his usual resting stern expression. Itachi has learned throughout his life that his father isn’t eternally mad, it’s just his face. 

“Good morning, Father. I don’t mind, really,” Itachi says, trying to convince Fugaku. He doesn’t have anything better to do anyways. All of his “friends” from the Academy have just become genin, so they aren’t available to hang out. And he has amicable relationships with his Anbu squadmates, but the age gap is simply too wide for it not to be weird to hangout on their day off. Itachi supposes he’ll just go get some sweets and people watch after sending his kid brothers off to school. 

His father wordlessly raises an eyebrow before nodding. “Well, I need to go, I have an early start today: I’m assigning the genin their first real missions. Say bye to Naruto and Sasuke for me, will you? Your mother is still sleeping, but should be out soon. Bye, son.” Itachi waves his father off, and pours some batter on a skillet. 

If he was normal, he would be going on his first real mission today too. But that’s the struggle of being a genius. He breezed by the Academy, and doesn’t have anybody his age he can really call a true “friend”. A year after he graduated, he pleaded with his father to make age a requirement to graduate. He doesn’t want anybody else to silently suffer from loneliness like he is now. In this sense he really envies his younger brothers: No matter what happens in their lives, one thing that they can depend on is having each other. A lone tear glides down his face, falling onto a simmering pancake when he hears pattering footsteps running towards the kitchen. 

He puts on a fake smile, and turns around: He sees a hyperactive Naruto running to the kitchen, being trailed by a drowsy, nearly sleepwalking Sasuke. “Good morning, ni-chan! Are you making pancakes? You’re the best ni-chan ever!” Naruto says as he walks behind Itachi to wrap his arms around the older boy. Itachi actually smiles this time, and flips a pancake, feeling a tug on his shirt. He looks down, and sees a dozy Sasuke pulling on his shirt.

“Tank you, ni-chan,” Sasuke slurs. Itachi hums before realizing he still needs to give Sasuke “the talk”. Naruto and Sasuke let go of their older brother to go sit at the dining table. 

“Okay, listen up Sasuke,” he waits for Sasuke to give him a verbal confirmation, but all he receives is a head nod. It’s good enough, this is only one talk of two; although, Shisui’s talk may turn out to be rather questionable. “The Sharingan is a very powerful tool that we Uchiha are famed for.” Itachi looks over his shoulder to see Sasuke nodding along, and an uncharacteristically quiet Naruto. He continues anyway, flipping another pancake. “The Sharingan will no doubt be your most valuable asset in battle, but never forget that it is first and foremost a tool for defense. What Shisui said yesterday is true, although I loathe to admit it. Having great power, does indeed come with a significant responsibility to use that power for good.” He turns around again to see Sasuke resting his head on his hand, his eyes closed. Naruto is looking at his lap, fiddling with his thumbs. “Are you okay, Naruto? You’re awfully quiet this morning.”

Naruto looks up from his fingers and vents, teary-eyed, “I’m never going to get a Sharingan, am I, ni-san? I mean, I’m not an Uchiha. I’m never going to get this ‘great power’ and ‘great responsibility’ that Sasuke’s getting. Can I still be a good ninja without one?”

“Oh, Naruto,” says a new voice that Itachi didn’t even notice come into the dining room, he was so preoccupied with his conversation. Mikoto is standing on the threshold of the dining room, wearing a green flak jacket and a forehead protector on, well, her forehead--a typical outfit for chunin and jonin ninja to wear. “You know, you don’t need a Sharingan to be a great ninja.” Mikoto walks over to stand behind Naruto’s chair, kneels down, and wraps him in a hug. Itachi just notices that there are streaks of tears running down his cheeks. “I don’t have a Sharingan, but I would argue that I’m a pretty good ninja. Your biological father--Minato--became the Hokage, but he didn’t have a Sharingan. And never say that you are not an Uchiha ever again. You may not be an Uchiha in name, but you are one in spirit. You possess the vitality and love for the Clan and family needed to be an Uchiha. You are Uzumaki Naruto in name, but are Uchiha Naruto in spirit. Besides, being an Uzumaki is pretty awesome too, ya know? Your biological mother was my best friend in the whole world, and she was an Uzumaki. Make your mothers proud, Naruto,” she finishes, patting his cheek.

The room smells like burning, and Itachi realizes there’s a pancake burnt to a crisp on the skillet. He quickly throws it in the sink, and runs water on it. The burnt pancake becomes washed over with a mix of faucet water and Itachi’s tears. He doesn’t dare turn around to let his family see his tear-stricken face, but he feels another tug on his shirt, and arms wrapping around his body.

The four of them eat their pancakes, Itachi’s pancake tasting a little salty, making light conversation about their upcoming day. Mikoto’s going on her first mission in over a decade, Naruto and Sasuke’s class is finally going to start taijutsu practice--to the excitement of Naruto, and loathing of Sasuke--, and Itachi, well he doesn’t quite know what he’s going to do. They all finish eating when Mikoto tells her sons that she needs to leave, and that Itachi will walk Naruto and Sasuke to school. 

The two Academy students go to their respective rooms to dress for the day, when Mikoto says goodbye to her eldest son. “Go do something fun today, Itachi dear. Practice, training, and reading are important to being a ninja, but us shinobi are only human. Remember that. And I might not be back in time to make dinner, so you can start cooking if I’m not back by five--make anything you want. Bye, Itachi.” Itachi waves goodbye to his mother, and waits for his brothers to get ready, so he can walk them to school. 

The walk to school is completely ordinary and banal--unlike the other events of the morning. One last wave to Naruto and Sasuke, and Itachi’s a free man. Well, physically free, the arms of loneliness still cling desperately onto him in a vice grip. 

Itachi roams around the Village, saying his greetings to members of the Military Police he happens to pass by. Itachi walks into a tea house and orders five skewers of dango. The old lady managing the place gives him six with a wink and says, “If you’re going on a date, you want to order an even amount, boy.” Itachi awkwardly smiles, and says his thanks; although, on the inside, he knows damn well he’s going to eat all six of them by himself. He goes to sit on a park bench, and spaces out, eating his wonderfully delicious treat. 

Suddenly he hears a deep mooing, then a girl his age, with long auburn hair tied up into a ponytail, plops onto the bench next to him, and an ox, with pouches filled to the brim with stuff on its back, chilling next to her. He’s too stunned into confusion to say anything. The girl looks at him with a smile, waves, and he automatically waves back with the hand still holding onto a dango skewer. “It’s a little hot today, isn’t it?” she says as she takes off her jacket; the back of her shirt has a minimalistic bull’s head on it. 

Itachi assumes that she’s talking to him, so he replies, “Yeah, it is. It’s still technically summer, you know. The autumnal equinox isn’t until next week.” Yes, when talking to a cute girl, the first thing to do is talk about the correct date for the changing seasons. To his insurmountable surprise, the girl laughs. 

“I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m Makino Utano. And this here is Sora,” she says pointing to the ox.

Without his brain’s permission, Itachi’s mouth says, “But cows can’t fly.” Sora moos, looking directly at Itachi. 

The girl--Utano--laughs again, and says, “He’s not a cow. He’s a strong and powerful bull. Besides, he can’t fly, but he sure can dream.” Itachi nods his head, not willing to argue with her. She turns to him again. “By the way, you never told me your name.”

“Oh. I’m Itachi,” he says, not divulging his family name. It usually gets really awkward when he says he’s an Uchiha, then people assume his father works for the police force--which isn’t that off the mark--and then they become kind of distant with him. He even stopped wearing the Uchiha crest outside of the Uchiha district.

Utano waits a few moments to see if Itachi’s willing to say anything more, before continuing the conversation. “I bet you’re curious as to why I have a bull in the Village, huh?”

Itachi says, “I’m not _not_ curious.” It’s not out of the ordinary for a cow--or rather a bull--to be roaming the Village. But said bull being led by a twelve year old girl is on the borderline of bizarre. 

Utano explains her situation to him. “The Makino clan is in charge of distributing mail within the Hidden Leaf. Outside couriers bring in mail from other villages, and us in the Makino clan make sure to distribute the mail to its correct recipients. I usually bring Sora along with me on my rounds because I can’t carry as many letters and packages without him.” Itachi nods his head--that makes a lot more sense than whatever his mind has conjured up since meeting her. He looks down on his lap, and notices he still has two full skewers of dango left.

He holds one out and offers her to take it. She graciously receives it, and the two of them peacefully sit in the park, eating their dumplings. He guesses he needs to give the dango lady his thanks, he did end up sharing it with somebody. “So,” Utano starts, “What are you doing sitting out here during the middle of the day? Don’t you have classes or work or something?”

Itachi swallows his last dumpling, and replies, “It’s my day off today.”

Utano swallows, and gets up from the bench. “Well, I need to get going now. Say, do you wanna meet up here again? In a week's time?” she asks before adding with a smirk. “Let’s meet up here on the autumnal equinox. How ‘bout that?” 

Itachi nods his head, and smiles. “Yeah, let’s.” Utano leads Sora to their next mail destination, while Itachi continues sitting on the bench with a giddy smile. For the first time in his life, he’s perfectly fine with having given away one of his precious sweets to another person. The grips of loneliness loosen just a tad bit.


	10. The Autumnal Equinox

It’s the autumnal equinox: The day is evenly split, 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of moonlight. Team Kakashi of the Anbu Black Ops has just finished an early morning mission, and Itachi is practically skipping back to the Leaf, so much so that Kakashi feels obligated to question the boy to make sure nothing’s wrong with him. “Are you okay there, Itachi-kun? You seem… different today?”

Itachi jerks his head suddenly to look at Kakashi, his ponytail whipping in the other direction. The two still have their Anbu masks on, so Itachi doesn’t have to hide his surprised face at his Anbu Captain. Itachi shakes his head, his mask not budging off his face. “I’m fine, Captain Kakashi. Nothing of importance is happening today.”

Kakashi looks unconvinced, at least Itachi senses that he does because his face is still hidden under his mask. But he dismisses the issue anyways. “Whatever you say, Itachi-kun. Listen, if you ever need to talk to anybody, my ear is always available.” 

Itachi responds with a nod, and Team Kakashi reaches the village gates. Itachi practically runs towards the Anbu Headquarters and adjoining locker room. Itachi doesn’t want to be late to his not-date, so he quickly takes off his Anbu wear, and slips on his street clothes—still missing the Uchiha fan on it. He looks around the locker room to make sure he’s alone before gently slapping his cheeks to shake away the nervousness. He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous. He’s a ninja; one of the ninja creeds is not allowing emotion to overtake them. An emotional ninja is an unpredictable ninja, and an unpredictable ninja is a dangerous ninja. But in this context, Itachi isn’t a shinobi. To Utano, Itachi is just some random kid without a surname that she is going to meet up with. Itachi makes sure to smooth over his shirt when he hears voices entering the locker room, and he immediately bolts out of the room. 

When he starts walking to the designated meeting place—a random bench, sitting in a random park—Itachi realizes that he should probably bring something. It’s nearing noon. Itachi has only eaten nasty-tasting food pills during his mission, and he can’t imagine that Utano has eaten anything if she was working the whole morning. Itachi buys a box of assorted sweets before immediately regretting his decision. Whenever he gets really hungry, he usually tunnels on sweets, a habit his mother has desperately tried to break his entire life. Well, too late now. When Itachi arrives at the bench, it’s still empty to his utter disappointment. 

Itachi sits on the bench eating his third cookie—he just can’t help himself—staring at the clouds drifting by, and the leaves swirling in the autumn wind. Is this what it feels like to get stood up? Well, it’s not a date—he’s only twelve years old. But he still feels so stupid. Why was he so excited about this in the first place? Utano probably doesn’t care about this stupid not-a-date. She probably even forgot about it! Itachi probably rushed out here for no reason. He could be training and honing his ninja craft instead of stuffing himself with cookies and increasing his chances of getting diabetes with every bite. 

He closes his eyes and slouches on the bench, feeling like even the clouds are silently mocking him, when he feels somebody sit next to him. He peeks to his right, and sees Utano looking at him, shaking her head with a grin. “We’ve only met twice, and both times you’ve been stuffing yourself with sweets. That’s not healthy, you know.” Itachi immediately straightens up his back, and looks around them: no cow in sight. 

“Sora isn’t with you today?”

“No, that’s actually part of the reason as to why I was late. I had to take Sora home so he didn’t interrupt us.” Itachi can’t say that he isn’t pleased: He swears that he felt some sort of animosity from the bovine animal the last time he saw him. “Also,” she starts again, “I had to pick this up.” She holds up two bento boxes. “It’s to make up for the dango you gave me last time. I always pay back my favors.” Itachi accepts the bento box, and sets the box of sweets between them. Utano peaks into the box, and looks up at Itachi in surprise. “Half the box is already eaten! I’m so sorry! Were you here waiting for a long time?”

Itachi rubs the back of his neck. “No, I didn’t wait too long,” he lies. “I just eat sweets really fast. One of my younger brothers absolutely loathes sweets, so I think I overcompensate for him.” The pair starts eating their lunches. Utano crosses her left leg under her right, so she can pivot her body in Itachi’s direction. Itachi’s back is as straight as a twig, his knees bent at perfect 90 degree angles. He turns his neck slightly to face Utano.

“Oh? You have a younger brother too, Itachi-without-a-surname. I swear, my little brother is such a brat sometimes, but he’s still family, you know. He goes on and on about wanting to become a ninja to the point that I think my parents were seriously considering it just so he can shut up about it. But it’s too late now. He’s already six, and missed the entrance deadline; he cried for a week when he learned that he couldn’t enter the Academy.”

Itachi nods his head, and swallows his food before responding. “I believe that there’s a clause that allows seven year olds to join the Academy if they show a promising aptitude to becoming a successful shinobi. But that’s very difficult for non-ninja families because the seven year old still needs to know the basic fundamentals taught during the first year at the Academy. Students at the Academy stay with their age group, no matter how advanced or behind they may be.” Itachi asked his father to apply this rule to the Academy, as well as making age a graduation requirement. 

Utano hums, and rests her left arm on the backside of the bench, holding her empty bento box with her right. Itachi tries to ignore just how close her arm is to him, still savoring the remnants of his bento box. He doesn’t even know why he’s still nervous. All they have talked about is the most banal thing. This definitely isn’t a date. Totally. “Say, Itachi, you sure do know a lot about the Academy. Are you a ninja by any chance? Do you think it’s worthwhile to become a ninja?”

“Worthwhile?”

“Yeah. I want to support my brother’s goals, I really do. But, what’s the point of even becoming a ninja? You go to the Academy for six years just for what, near death experiences for every mission? I like my life. I get to deliver mail, and talk to all sorts of people while I’m at it. But my brother’s dead set against being a mail courier, and honestly, the Clan really needs him. With each passing generation, less and less Clan members become mail couriers. It’s not exactly a fashionable profession.” 

Itachi thinks for a moment. He became a ninja because it was simply expected of him. As the next head of the Uchiha clan, he was trained to become a shinobi. And not just any shinobi—a superb shinobi. An excellent shinobi. He never thought about being anything else. The same is true for Sasuke and Naruto. They come from a ninja family, so they are naturally training to become shinobi. Itachi’s never thought about _why_ he’s a shinobi, he just simply _is_ one. His father was once Captain of the Military Police, and now he’s even the Hokage. There was nothing else for Itachi to become if not a ninja.

“Well,” Itachi starts to say, even though he doesn’t actually know what to say. “Training to become a shinobi is not about the destination, but the friends you make along the way.” Itachi spends way too much time with Shisui. But he supposes the sentiment has merit. Judging from Naruto and Sasuke’s school updates during dinner, the two seem to be getting quite close with their classmates—something Itachi never experienced.

Utano giggles behind her hand. “Is that so? You sound like some fantasy book character. Like the ones with the whatchamacallit. Superheroes?”

Itachi rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, my best friend rubs off on me, I guess. His mouth’s always running on about those new fantasy books. I mean, buildings that touch the sky? Really? A device that shoots metal bullets? It’s ludicrous.”

“Anyways, it’s too late now. Nobody in our family can really train Kitaro—that’s my brother by the way. Our grandfather’s a summoning animal breeder, but I don’t think he’s actually a trained ninja. Maybe Kitaro’s dream of becoming a ninja is just a pipedream after all,” Utano says wistfully. She’s a firm believer in the idea that hardwork and perseverance can triumph over all; but, sometimes the obstacles are just too damn high.

Itachi thinks while eating the last few bites of his lunch. He knows what he _can_ do, but is that really what he _should_ do? He can offer to help train the kid, it’s only for a year, but is that within his place to do so? Apparently, this Kitaro kid is the same age as Naruto and Sasuke, so maybe he can introduce the three? Itachi, with a heart as pure as gold, decides to offer his help to Utano and her brother. “You know, if Kitaro’s really serious about becoming a ninja, I can help train him if you want. I don’t know if I’m a good teacher, but—”

Utano squeals, and takes Itachi's hands to his surprise. Utano’s practically jumping in her seat. “Really? Do you really mean it?”

“Yeah, I help train my younger brothers anyways, so it’s really no big deal.”

“Are you doing anything right now?” Itachi shakes his head. “Do you wanna come swing by my house right now? Kitaro will be ecstatic to meet his new mentor.” Utano smiles, and wiggles her eyebrows at the “mentor” part. Itachi just nods, and the pair head off to Utano’s house.  
\---  
Shisui is annoyed. He’s beyond annoyed. Captain Inabi, Fugaku’s replacement as the Captain of the Konoha Military Police Force, is a real slavedriver. Shisui’s neck is completely stiff, having just stared down at his desk all morning completing paperwork. Shisui can’t wait enough for Itachi’s—or literally anybody else’s—ascension to the job.

Shisui’s sucking on a lollipop, walking to his favorite bookstore to wallow in the scent of new books and knowledge just waiting to get read, when he sees a rather interesting image. On a park bench in front of him, Itachi’s holding hands with a girl, and she just seems so… bubbly. Shisui pops the lollipop out of his mouth, and tilts his head to the side. Itachi’s finally growing up. Shisui has voiced his concerns before to Fugaku about how he’s worried about Itachi’s social life—or rather lack thereof. Itachi lives and breathes for missions, or at least the Itachi of the past did. Shisui starts to hide because the girl starts pulling Itachi away from the bench to God-knows-where. Shisui decides not to intervene: Itachi’s a shinobi, if he didn’t want to follow the girl, he would have pulled away long ago.

Shisui pops his lollipop back into his mouth, and continues walking towards the bookstore, ready to defend his choice of best girl to the other geeks that frequent the unofficial meeting place that has housed many Socratic debates, some of which have evolved into heated arguments, causing Shisui to flex his Police status, and break them up, meaning he always got the last laugh. And obviously, Shisui is a true connoisseur of culture, the best girl in the Kaguya-sama fandom is — — —; although, others beg to differ. Shisui throws out his lollipop stick in a trash can, tells the cashier the special password, cracks his knuckles, and enters the arena.  
\---  
Itachi and Utano reach her humble little abode after a fair bit of walking. Utano is a little embarrassed at showing Itachi her home, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Her parents are out doing clan business, and Kitaro is sulking at the dining table, sorting through which letters goes to which district. It’s not really a task that should be delegated to a six year old, but the Makinos are truly shorthanded at the moment, and her father always cries about clan pride when she suggests hiring non-Makinos for help. Utano leans on the dining table, watching Kitaro’s brow furrowed in concentration, while Itachi remains standing completely upright, his hands behind his back—making sure to not touch anything, but still thoroughly observe his surroundings. 

Kitaro looks much like his older sister; however, her auburn ponytail is replaced with his short, shaggy auburn hair. Kitaro still doesn’t acknowledge that people entered the room he’s sitting in until Utano bops him on the nose. “Hey! Watch it! I’m trying to sort these so Dad doesn’t get mad at me again.” 

He goes back to sorting letters, when Itachi raises an eyebrow in Utano’s direction. “Dad got furious when he wouldn’t stop crying. ‘Real men aren’t supposed to cry,’ or so Dad says,” Utano whispers into his ear. That sounds like something Itachi’s father would say, but never straight to his face. Itachi pulls out the chair, and sits across from Kitaro, crossing his arms over his chest. Utano is beyond intrigued, so she sits in the chair next to Itachi, looking back and forth between the two. 

Itachi clears his throat, and starts talking, much to the confusement of Kitaro. “A mentor once told me that crying is a sign of strength, not weakness.” The mentor in question is none other than Captain Kakashi. Itachi continues, when he sees that he has Kitaro’s undivided attention. “Crying out of sadness, happiness, or frustration are all okay. Even the most stoic ninja shed tears at some point in their career.” Itachi sure has. His father doesn’t know, but after his first mission as an Anbu operative, he cried like a baby in Kakashi’s arms. Itachi had killed trained ninja in the past, but that was his first civilian assassination. Kakashi held onto him as he wept, like a brother consoling his younger brother. Neither of them have ever mentioned the event after the fact, but it still is etched in both of their memories, keeping the two in an unspoken bond.

Kitaro’s eyes widen. “Are you a ninja? Do you get to go on cool missions? Who are you anyways?”

Itachi laughs. Itachi realizes that he doesn’t interact much with non-ninja, other than miniscule tasks like picking up food from vendors, or buying groceries. Utano just keeps on looking at the both of them in surprise. Itachi starts telling Kitaro about tales from past missions, and Utano realizes she becomes as entranced in Itachi’s stories as Kitaro does. Itachi tells the two non-ninja about tales of triumph, and tales of failure. Eventually, the dinner time hours approach, and Itachi has to return home. “Well, I need to go now. Kitaro, I’ll see you at our next training session to help you become a ninja. Today was only a test to see if you have the fuel ready to inherit the Will of Fire, and you most definitely do.” 

Kitaro’s eyes widen once again, and a tooth bearing grin splits his face. “Yessir, Itachi-sensei.”

Itachi raises his eyebrow in surprise as he starts getting up. Utano gets up next to him. “I’ll walk you out, Itachi-kun.” Itachi’s eyebrow raises even higher when he hears “kun”.The two are standing in the doorway, avoiding eye contact, neither wanting to say the fated farewell. Utano initiates conversation between the two, wanting to extend his stay just a little longer. “So, Itachi-kun, have you finally remembered your family name?” she jokes. “I’ll drop by your house with a letter so we can discuss the schedule for Kitaro’s training. You really don’t have to do it by the way.”

“Are you kidding? After talking to him, he seems like a good kid. The shinobi ranks will definitely benefit if he joins. I want to do this. I really do,” Itachi can see Utano’s shoulders slacken in alleviation. “And as for my surname… it’s Uchiha. My name’s Uchiha Itachi. My father’s the Hokage.” 

Itachi waits for Utano to get overly formal with him, and start sucking up to him, but it never happens. She just shakes her head, and tells him, “That actually makes it easier. Every mail courier has to memorize where the Hokage’s personal residence is in case we need to deliver an urgent missive during the middle of the night. Well, Itachi-kun, you should probably get going like right now. My parents are coming: I can see them down the road.” 

With one last little wave, Itachi Body Flickers away from the Makino residence to the surprise of Utano. He makes his way back home, passing by a bookstore with loud yelling bellowing from within its walls; Itachi thinks that he can hear Shisui’s voice coming from the bookstore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I don’t know if this is boring or not. I realized that I don’t really know how to write six year olds, so I decided to focus more on Itachi since he’s already a teen, or a preteen, during Naruto and Sasuke’s Academy years. I plan to have a timeskip to when the brothers become genin, but I didn’t want the fic to feel too timeskip jumpy, so I decided to write this Itachi “filler”. I don’t know, feel free to let me know if you don’t really care about these OCs, and just want me to go back to Naruto’s class. I will say, however, that there will be at least four OCs in this fic, including Utano and Kitaro. I’m doing this mainly to fill out Sai’s genin team when the time comes, so I hope that they don’t stick out like a sore thumb against the canon characters. Thanks for reading!
> 
> BTW, I haven’t read the Kaguya-sama manga yet, so no spoilers please! I’ve only watched the anime.


	11. Naruto's Birthday

It’s the morning of October Tenth, and Naruto literally jumps up from his bed, not caring about the loud creak he makes on his floorboards. This year, his birthday falls on a weekend, so he can celebrate with his friends on the actual day instead of having to wait. He hastily stumbles his way to the kitchen and adjoining dining room where he finds his parents and Itachi already waiting for him. 

Fugaku is the first to notice the bumbling blonde, and makes his proper, if quite monotone, morning greeting, “Good morning and happy birthday, son.”

Mikoto quickly turns around from the stove and goes to wrap Naruto into a tight hug. “Happy birthday, Naruto dear! Itachi dear, why don’t you grab Sasuke so we can start eating breakfast?”

“Of course, Mother,” Itachi says as he gets up from his seat. As he walks by Naruto, he gently flicks him on the forehead and tells him, “Happy birthday, little brother.”

With the arrival of Sasuke, the family amicably eats their breakfast. Itachi and Mikoto decided not to take on any missions for the day while Fugaku woke up extra early to deal with anything overly important that needed his immediate attention, but pushed back any other work for the following days. 

While Fugaku enjoys having young sons, soon he will have ninja, and they will be treated as such. For now, he can fulfill his duties as a father to young children and host things such as birthday parties, but when Naruto and Sasuke become ninja—and he doesn’t particularly mean obtaining hitai-ate—they will learn that frivolities such as birthday parties are a gift, not a right.

When all five of them are finished eating their meals and washed their dishes, Fugaku clears his throat and says solemnly, “Let’s pay our respects to Minato and Kushina.” While it is Naruto’s birthday, which is of course a happy occasion, Fugaku makes sure that Naruto never forgets that it’s also his biological parents’ death anniversary. 

Itachi and Sasuke immediately follow after their father to the living room, but Naruto stays behind, staring at the empty dining table. He feels a gentle hand start resting on his shoulder and looks up to see Mikoto gently smiling down at him. “Come on, Naruto dear. I think Minato-san and Kushina would be glad to see you on your special day.”

With a reluctant nod, Naruto gets up and starts walking to the living room with the guidance of Mikoto’s hand still on his shoulder, but right before entering, he pivots his way to the kitchen. Mikoto follows him, about to call out to him when he yells a distinctive, “Wait!” Mikoto does just that and smiles when her youngest returns to her side carrying two cup noodles and a smile. 

Fugaku is kneeling right in front of the altar with a picture of Minato and Kushina’s smiling faces, Itachi and Sasuke kneeling behind him. He hears Naruto call “wait”, but doesn’t take his eyes off of the altar. He does remove his eyes from the altar only to find his wife following closely behind Naruto, who’s carrying cup noodles in each of his hands. He silently raises an eyebrow, but all Mikoto does is subtly shake her head, an amused look on her face. 

Naruto sets the cup noodles on the altar next to his biological parents’ portraits and kneels in between Fugaku and Mikoto. Fugaku tries handing Naruto the two incense sticks, ready to again make his speech about using fire when his youngest son surprises him by saying, “Mom, Dad, this time you guys can light the incense sticks. I think other Mom and Dad are already happy with the cup noodles I gave them, y’know.” 

Fugaku one handedly seals some signs, and breathes life on both of the incense sticks, handing one to his wife. They place the sticks on the same holder; Mikoto tilts hers towards Kushina’s portrait, and Fugaku tilts his towards Minato’s portrait. The family takes the moment to solemnly pray: Naruto to his parents, Mikoto to one of her best friends, Fugaku to his former teammate, Itachi and Sasuke to the hero that saved the village and woman who gave birth to their beloved little brother. 

Fugaku opens his eyes to look directly at the blonde right next to him. His baritone voice breaks the silent moment the family just had. “Naruto, while Mikoto and I love you very much, you must never forget your bloodline, your heritage. While yes, you are a proud Uchiha, you must be a prouder Uzumaki and Namikaze for you alone bear the burden of carrying on such bloodlines and legacies. Remember, son, Kushina gave her life to give birth to you, and Minato gave his to make sure you keep on living. Make them proud. They gave their lives to give you the heavy burden of living, so take that burden and bear it with a straight back. We should give Naruto a moment to himself now.” 

With a pat on Naruto’s shoulder, Mikoto gets up along with her husband to go to the other room. Itachi ruffles his hair while Sasuke gives him a brief nod that Naruto almost misses entirely. When his two brothers leave, Naruto is completely alone. He puts his hand on his knees with tears running down his cheeks. He faintly whispers, “I miss you, Mom, Dad.”

He is referring to neither Mikoto nor Fugaku.  
\---  
Naruto politely greets his aunts and uncles into the Uchiha Head family estate to the critical eye of his dad. Really, he’s just waiting for his friends to come. Since he’s the birthday boy, he’s had to personally greet every relative that walks through the door while Itachi and Sasuke get to keep to themselves, gorging themselves with food, only having to briefly wave to aunts and uncles that take the time to walk over to them. Naruto smirks to himself when he sees Sasuke get swamped into a hug from one of their more affectionate aunties. 

Naruto is brought back to his duty when he hears his father say, “Welcome, Shikaku, Yoshino. Is this your son?”

Before anybody else has a chance to respond, Naruto’s big mouth opens. “Shikamaru, you finally came!” 

“Yeah, you were talking about it the entire week. What a bother,” Shikamaru shoots back immediately. 

Naruto grins all the same at his friend’s less than enthusiastic attitude. Shikaku looks amused while Yoshino reprimands her son about manners, especially in the presence of the Hokage. Not wanting to interrupt Yoshino, Fugaku waits for the woman to finish giving her son an earful before saying his piece, “Naruto, why don’t you let Shikamaru grab some food and take him to the front courtyard—grab Sasuke too. Make sure to still greet people when you’re out there.”

“Thanks, Dad! Come on, let’s go Shika!” Naruto says, basically dragging the poor boy along with him to the line of catered food. When he grabs a plate, Naruto points Shikamaru towards the courtyard and goes to personally escort Sasuke away from his secluded corner since Itachi went to go socialize with their older cousins, and Sasuke absolutely refused to go with his older brother. 

The front courtyard is mainly secluded from prying adults which instead choose to mingle inside the actual house or in the main courtyard. Shikamaru is sitting on the porch overlooking the koi pond, eating an eggroll since it’s simple and easy to eat. Sasuke walks into the courtyard with Naruto and almost laughs at who he sees. Almost. Sasuke sits next to the lazy kid as he says, “Shikamaru, who would’ve guessed that you would be the first to arrive.”

“Yeah, my parents always insist on coming to events early. It’s always such a drag.” 

“This is such a drag. That is such a bother,” a mocking voice comes from behind them. “You always think everything is troublesome, Shikamaru. Try finding something that isn’t for once,” Ino says as she and Sakura walk over to the three boys, both of their parents sending them off while they greet the Hokage. None of the kids make any greetings to each other because such a thing has become unnecessary. 

Shikamaru puffs out some air. “I say that everything’s a bother because everything is.”

“Why—” but Ino’s interrupted by the presence of one of Naruto’s uncles coming up to greet him and Sasuke. Ino basically swoons at the interaction. “Oh Naruto, you handled that basically perfectly!” Ino exclaims when the uncle leaves. 

Naruto looks embarrassed, and Sakura hits Ino on the back of her head. “Oh shut up, Ino Pig, all he did was say hi to a family member.”

“Did you really do that to me, Billboard Brow? You have the nerve…” Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke ignore the two girls that start arguing. It’s not anything new for any of them. 

After some time, nearly all of Naruto’s friends slowly trickle into the front courtyard. From the inside, the kids can hear the adults making a ruckus; evidently, the party is as much for the adults as it is for Naruto. Naruto looks around, but just can’t find a certain shy, white-eyed girl. He pulls aside Sakura to ask her about it. 

“I saw her walking into the house, but now that you said it, I don’t think she’s walked out yet,” Sakura responds. Naruto’s eyes widen before he internally cringes at having missed greeting a guest. What his father doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt him he supposes. 

He walks back into the house on the pretense of getting a drink, but his eyes scan for dark blue hair. He finds her standing next to two tall looking men with long black hair, a kid that looks about his age, and Naruto’s very own father. Naruto walks up to the group, and one of the tall men—the one without a hitai-ate—turns to Fugaku. 

“Is this the birthday boy, Fugaku-sama?” Hiashi asks somewhat cheerfully. Since the incident with the Hidden Cloud, Hiashi has gotten particularly close with Fugaku. That particular incident was when Hiashi and many of the other clan heads fully recognized Fugaku as their Hokage and his blazing Will of Fire. If Fugaku hadn’t called out the Cloud’s bluff, Hiashi truly believes he would have lost his brother that day: He still cringes at the ludicrous idea Hizashi presented him with.

Fugaku puts a hand on Naruto’s shoulder. “Yes, this is my youngest, Uzumaki Naruto.”

Neji raises a delicate eyebrow at the name. He swears that during training, Hinata would mutter things like “For Naruto-kun,” and the like. Neji scrutinizes the kid that his precious cousin supposedly always thinks about. The Naruto kid squints his eyes at him, locking them into a staring contest. 

“Well, Hinata, we’ve been holding you long enough. I’m assuming Naruto came to pick you up?” Hiashi asks as a question directed to Naruto. 

“Yessir,” Naruto responds with a mock salute, breaking his staring contest with Neji. Hiashi’s lips quark into a half smile when the Naruto kid casually grabs Hinata’s hand to direct her to the front courtyard. The Hyuga have already become quite friendly with the Uchiha, but a Hyuga marriage to the pseudo-Uchiha does seem interesting indeed. Of course, only Fate knows the true future. 

As Fugaku and Hiashi watch their kids walk off, Hiazashi leans down to lean in Neji’s ear, “You’re not going with them?”

“No, Father. They’re Lady Hinata’s friends, I shouldn’t interfere.” 

“It’s okay to have friends, Neji.”

“I know,” is all Neji replies with.  
\---  
When Naruto and Hinata walk back out to the front courtyard, Sasuke and Shikamaru are playing a game of shogi where Sasuke is getting absolutely rolled. Sakura and Choji are watching the match while eating, Choji showing Sakura how to eat some of the more obscure food that the Uchiha have provided. Shino is messing around with his bugs to the utter horror and fascination of Ino who in turn, tells him about flower language. Kiba and Sai are crouching down by the koi pond: Kiba is holding Akamaru from jumping in, and Sai is sketching some koi fish on a worn out sketchbook. 

Naruto and Hinata sit a little ways away from the others on the patio since they all seem to be doing their own thing, and Naruto moves to fully lie on his back, putting his arms behind his head and staring up at the clouds. Hinata hugs her knees against her chest, tilts her neck up and cloud watches as well.

“Hinata, what does that cloud look like to you?” Naruto asks, pointing up at a cloud.

“Umm. I-it looks like… a lily. A white lily.”

“Really? To me it looks like a cloud, y’know,” Naruto says looking at her with a grin. 

Sakura glances back at him, apparently overhearing their conversation. But since she isn’t Ino, she promptly chooses to ignore them, focusing back on the shogi game. She tilts her head at the board, wondering where all of Sasuke’s pieces went. 

“N-Naruto-kun, you’re… an idiot,” Hinata says quietly, just a little wisp of air from between her lips. “A kind idiot.”

“Did you say something, Hinata?” Naruto asks, still staring up at the clouds. He’s never really seen the appeal of cloud watching that Shikamaru always goes on about. Until now that is. 

“N-no,” she stammers. 

They go back to watching the slowly drifting clouds in a comfortable silence. Occasionally, they hear Sasuke’s grunt of frustration or Ino’s squeal of horror, but they’re mostly deafened by the peaceful clouds living on adrift. Naruto swears that one of the clouds looks like a three-pronged kunai and another looks like a habanero. But Naruto never goes back on his word, so all he sees are clouds.  
\---  
Eventually, many of the older Uchiha relatives pop outside to say bye to Naruto and Sasuke and make their ways home. Then, Naruto’s cousins start wishing him a final happy birthday before departing for the day. 

After one final goodbye, Mikoto comes out to the group of kids. “Okay, children. That was the final Uchiha relative, so now let’s have cake! Then after, Naruto dear, you can open some of your presents.” 

Finally, Naruto has been waiting for some of his more distant relatives to leave. He loves his family, he really does, but even he has trouble remembering even some major details such as all of their names. He’s really lucky that nobody’s called him out on calling everybody either “Aunty”, “Uncle”, or “Cousin”. Of course, Sasuke and Itachi can tell everybody’s names from the back of their heads. Show offs.

The congregation of Naruto and Sasuke’s classmates/friends are corralled into the dining room by Mikoto. Fugaku, Itachi, and Shisui are already waiting with a lit cake while the other adults politely wait in the sitting room, not wanting to interrupt their kids’ fun by overly crowding the room. The kids in the room start singing “Happy Birthday” to Naruto, in which Tsume joins in by singing at the top of her lungs from the sitting room to the utter embarrassment of Kiba. The laughing adults in the sitting room do nothing to overpower Tsume’s booming voice.

When the song ends, Naruto blows out the seven candles on the cake. Kiba immediately blows them back to life, and Naruto blows them out a second time to the amusement of everybody in the room. Mikoto slices up the cake, plates them, and hands them over to the hungry kids. When all of the kids get a slice, Choza comes in from the sitting room with another cake and all of their parents.

“Ohh! There’s another cake!” Choji exclaims as he has already finished his slice. 

“Sorry Choji, but this is the ‘adult’ cake,” Choza sadly replies to his son. His wife used quite a bit of alcohol to make the cake, and he doesn’t want to take any chances. 

“Here,” Shikamaru says, shoving his half eaten cake towards his friend. “I don’t like the taste anyways.”

Naruto looks like he’s about to say something, so Sasuke pushes his plate towards his brother too. “Only because it’s your birthday.”

Naruto looks at the nearly untouched piece of cake: It looks like only one bite was taken out of it. “Thanks, Sasuke!”

“Idiot.”

When Ino starts talking to Naruto, Sakura discreetly pushes her half eaten cake in front of Sasuke. At his raised eyebrow, she promptly ignores him, looking over Sai’s drawing. He only allows himself to take one bite. Two bites of cake is enough to satiate him for a whole year. 

Itachi’s lips minisculely raise up as he watches all the cake swapping happen at the dining room table. Shisui is talking to the Neji kid, but he still notices. For being a ninja, Itachi’s always had a soft spot for children while Shisui thinks that they are the evilest, little goblins to ever roam the earth. Of course, he still plays nice with them.

As parents start kicking off their kids from their seats at the dining room table, Fugaku tells Naruto to take his friends to the sitting room, and off they go, wanting to get away from their boisterous parents. Naruto feels like the adults are having just as much fun as their kids, if not more, when the last thing he sees before leaving the dining room is Kiba’s mom trying to slam Choji’s dad’s face into the cake with a crazy crackle coming from her mouth. 

Sitting in the living room are Naruto and Sasuke’s classmates, Neji, Shisui, and Itachi. The mood of the room is quite calm considering that all 13 occupants are children and teenagers. They start playing with Akamaru when Mikoto pops her head into the room. 

“Naruto dear, why don’t you open some of your presents? We'll be in the dining room if you need us,” she says in a singsong voice. 

Shikamaru’s present is the first he opens: It’s a chessboard with pieces. 

“Why—”

“Because it’s such a bother that you or Sasuke can never beat me. Maybe with a little practice, you can at least take away my queen.” Sasuke harrumphs at the comment from his corner but says nothing else. 

Next, Naruto opens Ino’s gift: It’s pressed forget-me-not petals. “Forget-me-nots mean ‘true love’ in the language of flowers, Naruto-kun,” Ino says with a wink. 

All Naruto does is shrug. “Huh, I didn’t know that flowers can talk,” he says while opening Hinata’s gift. She has a look of utter horror on her face when he reveals… pressed forget-me-not petals. Ino’s mouth gapes open as she looks at the shy girl hiding her cheeks behind her arm. 

“Hinata, I think you put your name on the wrong gift or something, y’know. Ino, you didn’t need to give me two,” Naruto says scratching his head. Sakura has to physically restrain Ino from getting up and marching toward Hinata for the rest of the gift opening. Neji discreetly ends his conversation with Shisui and sits next to his cousin when he notices the seething blond girl after the forget-me-not incident.  
\---  
After all of the gifts are opened, and the adults are ready to go home, it’s time to say goodbye, bringing an end to Naruto’s seventh birthday party. With one last farewell, the Uchihas, including Shisui, walk back into the house after sending off the last of their guests. 

Mikoto claps her hands, delegating the Uchiha boys to get the house back in order. “Naruto dear, I know it’s your birthday, but why don’t you and Shisui go clean up the front courtyard? Itachi and Sasuke, to the main courtyard. Fugaku honey, let’s clean up inside.”

All of them comply with Mikoto's orders without too much complaining, even the great Fifth Hokage Fugaku. He would like to keep two fully functioning ears, thank you very much. He’d rather not follow in the footsteps of a certain Nara if he can certainly avoid it. 

He takes off his Hokage haori since there’s only immediate family left—plus Shisui, but he doesn’t count—and helps Mikoto pick up loose plates and the like. 

“Sooo,” Mikoto says when she’s sure that the kids are out of earshot, “They seem like a pretty good group, don’t they?” Fugaku and Mikoto have only ever heard stories about Naruto and Sasuke’s class from their kids’ mouth… their very biased kids. Naruto’s birthday party was as much a chance to stake out the next generation all together as it was a celebration. Since they have to spend so much time together, ninja generally become just as close to their Academy class as their genin squad. Though, one’s class is more akin to an extended family while a genin team is like an immediate one. 

“Considering that they are literally the future of the village, they better be. Naruto and Sasuke’s generation is superbly lucky that so many heirs are in the same class, no less the same year. That’s not even mentioning their Uchiha and Inuzuka ties as well. It’s even luckier that they’re friends, not just classmates.”

Everything that Fugaku does is for the success of the next generation: For the success of his family, village, and clan in that order. Of course, over the years, the Hokage hat has weighed heavier on his head than his title as Head of the Uchiha so much so that he’s just waiting for Itachi to come of age so he can formally pass on the title of Head of the Uchiha Clan. 

“Well, the next generation is always supposed to surpass—”

“Aunty Mikoto, Uncle Hokage, Naruto and I are done with the front courtyard,” Shisui says coming back into the house with Naruto. 

“Same with the main courtyard,” Itachi announces as he walks back in with Sasuke. 

“Well done, you four! Now, go hang out in one of your rooms or something, Fugaku and I still need to finish,” Mikoto says, waving them off.

The four of them hang out in Itachi’s room until night falls upon the Hidden Leaf, signaling the coming end to October Tenth.  
\---  
It’s the night of October Tenth, and Naruto is lying on his futon still completely buzzing from the excitement of the day. Earlier in the day, Itachi inconspicuously told him to stay up tonight; however, he would have done so even without being told just so he can further extend his special day. He’s staring up at his ceiling when he hears his door creak open. His face splits into a wide grin at the sight of Itachi peaking into his room with a finger against his lips.

Delicately to prevent any creaking, Itachi slowly opens the door to Naruto’s room with his right hand since his left is preoccupied with holding a fabulous display of assorted chocolates. He makes sure to convey Naruto’s need for him to be quiet when they make eye contact before opening the door wider and letting a certain sleepy-head holding a tray of beverages into the room before him.

Naruto slides out of bed as quietly as he can and goes to sit with Sasuke next to his wide window as Itachi slowly-but-surely closes the door behind him. The blonde peers into the cups and bowl on the tray that Sasuke just set down on his table: Two of them are hot cups of tea, one is a cold glass of milk, and the bowl is full of dried seaweed. It’s obvious to Naruto which cup belongs to him as he picks up the glass of milk and takes a small sip as Sasuke brings the bowl of seaweed closer to him and starts munching on one.

Itachi grins like a madman as he sits against the moonlight, sets down the box of chocolates, opens the lid with a flair he only ever truly shows his brothers in the comfort of privacy, and whispers, “Happy birthday, Naruto.”

Sasuke simply grunts with a piece of seaweed sticking out of his mouth, but Naruto knows he shares the same sentiment as their older brother. Without many more words, the three brothers sit in the nearing-midnight moonlight, sipping their preferred beverages and indulging in their preferred snacks. Itachi even swears that he sees Sasuke swiping a piece of dark chocolate out of the box, but has no actual proof of the act. 

In no time at all, the three drink cups, the seaweed bowl, and chocolate box are all empty, and the three brothers have to lean against the table and ground after overindulging on a day already full of indulging. Naruto wistfully watches his brothers as Sasuke covers the empty chocolate box, tucking it under his arm, and Itachi balances the cups and bowl on the tray again to take back to the kitchen and wash them before either parent finds out about their late night shenanigans. 

Standing up, Naruto goes to sit on his bed. Itachi walks over to him, easily balancing the tray on his left hand, and gently flickers Naruto’s forehead with his right before whispering, “Remember, I’ll always be there for you. Goodnight, Naruto.”

Then Itachi looks back at Sasuke who’s still sitting at the table, the empty chocolate box sitting snugly under his arm. They share a look, but convey an entire conversation. Sasuke reluctantly gets up, walks over to where Naruto’s sitting, and says without making eye contact, “Happy birthday, Naruto.” 

Itachi shakes his head: It’s already past midnight.


	12. Founding Day

Kakashi never makes mistakes. As a student of the Fourth Hokage, Kakashi prides himself in his ability to flawlessly execute missions, and bring great successes to the Hidden Leaf Village as an Anbu Captain. So it comes to a big surprise to everybody on Team Kakashi when their captain gets impaled in the leg during a seemingly regular mission, and stumbles to the ground. After some cleanup on the battlefield by his team, Kakashi is now leaning on Yamato’s shoulder on their journey back to the Village. 

“Captain, in all the years that I’ve known you, this has to be the first time I’ve seen you injured. Did something happen recently?” questions Yamato, Kakashi’s right hand man, figuratively and now literally.

Before Kakashi can respond, Itachi, his left hand man, speaks up from his left side. “Yeah, you seemed distracted today, Captain. You should take a break after getting your leg checked at the hospital.” 

Kakashi stubbornly shakes his head. “I’m fine. This is nothing.” 

Team Kakashi arrives at the village gates, and Yamato starts leading himself and Kakashi in the direction of the hospital to the grumbling of the silver-haired man. Yamato says, “Come on, Captain. Itachi will handle the oral and written report to the Hokage. You’ve been doing far too much lately, you need a break.” Yamato thinks for a moment. “Say, the Founding Festival is later this month, you should go with Guy-san or something. Loosen up for a bit. It would be the perfect opportunity to unwind. Us in the Anbu aren’t so incompetent that we would fail without you,” Yamato finishes with a wink before handing Kakashi off to a nurse and Body Flickering away. 

Eventually, Kakashi ends up in a hospital bed, staring up at the white ceiling, waiting for the Director of the Hospital to tell him he’s fine so he can just leave and go home. Fugaku made sure to place Kakashi on the Hospital VIP list, so whenever Kakashi’s admitted, the Director himself has to clear him for service. When Kakashi asked him about it, Fugaku responded with, “It’s what Minato would’ve wanted”. 

But Kakashi doesn’t know if his VIP status is supposed to help him or hurt him because the Director is an absolutely ancient man that should have retired years ago. _Whatever_ , Kakashi thinks, _can that old geezer just come already so I can leave already_. 

To his relief, his room door opens, but Kakashi scowls under his mask when somebody who _isn’t_ the Hospital Director walks in. But even Kakashi has to admit, the man that walks in is quite the looker. He has soft-looking, lush, blond hair, dark green eyes, and a blue crystal dangling off of his right ear as an earring. But, Kakashi’s thoughts about the stranger don’t matter because he’s not the Director, so he can’t check Kakashi out of here. 

Even if the man is wearing a white lab coat, and is looking down at a clipboard, Kakashi’s in no mood for games. “I don’t know if you’re in the wrong room, kid, but you’re not the Director, so you’re not my doctor. Listen, I’m on the VIP list, so it would be great if you can bring the Director, so I can get checked out of here. I’m a shinobi, I don’t have time to be playing dress up.”

The blonde just stares at Kakashi during his rant, a bored expression on his face. He yawns before asking, “Are you done?” When he sees Kakashi nod his head, he continues. “First off, the Director is currently on leave right now, he broke his hip or something, and the Deputy Director has other urgent matters to attend to. So what I’m saying is that you’ll have to deal with me for your stay here. Secondly, don’t ‘kid’ me. You’re only two years older than me, and,” the blonde fishes a forehead protector out of his pocket, “I’m a trained ninja too.” 

Kakashi thinks that he hears the blonde mutter something like “damn Anbu” but he doesn’t press the matter. “Sorry,” Kakashi starts saying, “I’m just in a pissy mood right now. I don’t usually get injured.”

The blonde sighs a deep sigh, and says bluntly, “You broke your leg, Kakashi-san. Yes, there’s a gash, but you probably fell or something after receiving the cut, causing the break. We’ll need to put a cast on it, and you’ll be out of service for about six to eight weeks. I don’t know why you’re so insistent on getting out of here, but you’ll probably be doing paperwork instead of field work for quite some time.”

“Is there anyway to hasten the recovery time, Doctor…?”

“My name’s Natsu. There’s no need for you to call me Doctor, since I’m technically a medical ninja, not a doctor, and I don’t care about titles. And, no, I’m not a miracle worker. Medical Ninjutsu is only so advanced. Broken bones are simply just things that take time.”

“I understand, Natsu. And sorry for my outburst earlier. Hospitals aren’t my favorite place in the world,” Kakashi says as he rubs the back of his neck with a small grimace hidden under his mask. This Natsu person seems nice enough at least. 

Natsu shakes his head with a small smile. “That’s understandable. I was never too fond of hospitals either.” Kakashi has to think about why a medical ninja would hate hospitals, while Natsu pulls up a chair next to Kakashi’s leg, and starts healing the gash with light green medical chakra. The two talk about nothing, everything, and anything during Kakashi’s hospital stay, and follow up appointments. Natsu even goes as far as making some house visits that have nothing to do with Kakashi’s leg.  
\---  
Itachi goes to the Uchiha training grounds after reporting to his father in Kakashi’s absence for Kitaro, Naruto, and Sasuke’s second joint training session. The first one was… not so great. Perfect little Sasuke hit a bullseye with every single shuriken. Naruto was precise, but not accurate, an easy enough fix. Naruto just needs to aim higher or lower accordingly. But, Kitaro was struggling. Struggling by a lot. He was neither precise nor accurate. He didn’t even hit the target sometimes. But that was the last session. Itachi is very optimistic that his new student will be able to reach his standard in this upcoming session. 

Itachi reaches the training grounds to find Sasuke and Naruto giving Kitaro pointers on his technique. Utano waves Itachi over to her before the three school kids notice him. “Your parents must be amazing! All three of you are such angels.” 

Itachi rubs the back of his neck at the implication of being called an “angel”. “I don’t know about angels, but Father always raised us to be tenacious, while Mother raised us to be compassionate. Shisui, an older brother of sorts, also always taught us important lessons that he learned from different manga and novels.” 

Utano looks like she’s about to respond, but Naruto and Sasuke start arguing over who has the better advice, and Itachi decides to step in when he sees Kitaro start shrinking back away from the two. Itachi waves his brothers off to do individual practice, and helps Kitaro with his shuriken aiming. “No, you should grip it like this instead,” Itachi says while showing him the proper technique. Kitaro mimics him, and throws it when Itachi gives the okay. “It’s… a start. You hit the target at least. Progress is all that matters; ignore Naruto and Sasuke, they'll only distract you.”

After some guided practice, Itachi returns back to Utano to help her sort through letters. It’s technically Kitaro’s job to do so, but Itachi and Utano decided to keep Kitaro’s ninja training hush-hush from the older Makinos until he starts making sizable progress. The two are shrouded in a comfortable reprieve from talking, the occasional shuriken hitting wood sounding in the background, until Utano breaks the silence. “Say, Itachi-kun, do you have any plans during the Founding Festival? I mean, as the Hokage’s son, I’m sure you’re probably busy, and—”

“I would love to go with you, Utano, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not busy at all, believe me.” When Itachi told Shisui about Utano, Shisui told him that he should be more direct with her: Communication is key to any relationship, platonic or romantic. 

“Great. We can start off the night with just the two of us, then we can meet up with my friends later in the night, if that’s fine with you?”

“Yeah, sounds great.”  
\---  
Natsu is sitting in an empty hospital room, nibbling on the end of his pen, waiting for Kakashi because he has a follow-up appointment. To his surprise, the usually chronically late Kakashi actually shows up not just on time, but slightly early for once, so Natsu has to act like he was actually doing something productive instead of doodling on a piece of scratch paper. “I swear, Natsu, you always pick the farthest hospital room just to harass me. Harassing the crippled is just cruel. Cruel I say.”

“What? I thought you were an Anbu Captain, walking with crutches should be as easy as pie for someone like you. Just think of it as extra training.” 

“Tch. I just felt a shiver go down my spine when you said that last sentence.”

Kakashi lies down on the bed, and pulls out _Icha Icha Paradise_ from his pocket. Natsu quickly flips his drawing over. It would be way too embarrassing to let Kakashi see his totally amateurish portrait of him. 

Natsu looks over Kakashi’s broken leg while making conversation. “How can you read something like that? The entire book is practically smut. Doesn’t the book ever make you… embarrassed?”

Kakashi’s lone eye looks away from the book to look directly at Natsu. “The contents of the book don’t affect me in that way. You could say it’s because the contents of the book don’t match my ‘preferences’, so I can read the book more objectively than most.”

Natsu has to think for a second before he catches Kakashi’s drift. “Oh. I can kind of relate I guess. But I still don’t like the book, Uncle Jiraiya’s a brilliant shinobi, but his prose is kind of questionable.” 

An awkward silence envelopes the pair, Kakshi continues reading, while Natsu scribbles something down on his clipboard. Suddenly Kakashi breaks the silence in a very blunt manner. “I’m gay. That’s what I was implying. I am a male that is attracted to other males.”

“Um, yeah, I kind of got that. I’m gay too.” Another silence envelopes them, but comfortable this time. The thing that they’ve both been edging around has finally been spilt. During all the times that they’ve met in the last couple weeks, they’ve both felt _something_ , but neither wanted to be the one to initiate anything. They are still technically doctor and patient, but some technicality doesn’t get in the way of their homosexuality. 

Eventually, Natsu leans back in his chair, pretending to write doctor stuff down on his clipboard, but in reality he’s just thinking of what to say next when suddenly, Kakashi speaks up yet again. Natsu should really stop being surprised by it. “Hey, you’re a medical ninja.”

“Yes I am, which you already know. Do I need to get a neuro consultation in here?” Natsu stops what he’s doing to give Kakashi his undivided attention.

“That means you must have lost patients, right? How do you get over them?” Kakashi still isn’t over Obito and Rin, even after all these years. Their deaths still hover over him, regret pangs in his chest whenever he hears their names. Their deaths are his fault: Obito would have lived if he hadn’t saved Kakashi in his steed, and Rin died by Kakashi’s own Chidori. Even hanging out with Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai is too painful because he remembers their school days where everything was alright. Now, they’re just memories of a time long ago. The good old days are never recognized as the good old days until they’re just forlorn memories.

Natsu has to think before answering in order to choose his words carefully. “It’s just part of the job I guess. It’s the same thing as an Anbu operative like yourself. You take lives don’t you? All those ninja that you’ve killed were people too. Lives are still lost, no matter if you happen to kill a Stone ninja in the battlefield, or if I lose a Leaf ninja in the OR. Besides, you can’t think like that in this profession. Of course, mourning the dead is important, but my mother always says that if we medical ninja mourn and grieve over every patient that we’ve lost, there would be no time left saving others.”

“Say, Natsu, what if somebody risks their life to save yours and dies, but your life wasn’t worth saving?” Kakashi looks like a lost child. He almost seems a little dazed. Natsu has the feeling that this scenario isn’t a “what if”.

“What are you talking about, Kakashi? Every single life on this planet has inherent value. Human life is literally priceless. If somebody dies for your sake, then they must’ve cared for you deeply.” Natsu doesn’t know when, but at some point he moved to sit next to Kakashi on the bed, and grabbed his hand. 

“You matter, Kakashi. I don’t know what the circumstances were, but you’re alive for a reason. Being a shinobi comes with sacrifice, that’s also what my mother always told me—I got lectured a lot as a kid. You see this earring? My mom gave it to me just before I took my chunin exam. When she gave it to me, she made me promise that I wouldn’t die before her. Morbid, right? My mother’s younger brother and my father both died during the Second Great Shinobi War, and they were the two previous recipients of this blue crystal, but she didn’t just give up. Sure, she had quite a period of mourning, and she still mourns their deaths to this day, but she persevered because she’s a shinobi. She was literally in the middle of a war, and deaths are expected, not an anomaly. My point is, Kakashi, is that whatever happened isn’t your fault. Guilt is way too heavy for us humans to carry alone. Whatever happened is the fault of this cruel Shinobi World that we live in, not yours.” 

“Thanks, Natsu. I mean it.” Kakashi’s still lying on the bed with a glassy look in his eye, but now the left half of Natsu’s body is lying on the bed too. The pair lie there for a bit until Natsu realizes how unprofessional he looks, and that the door’s unlocked. Natsu would like not to lose his side job, thank you very much. Natsu quickly finishes performing his check up, and walks Kakashi back to the front entrance. 

“I know this probably isn’t appropriate since you’re my doctor and all, but do you want to go to the Founding Festival with me?”

“Kakashi, our relationship has probably stopped being professional long ago,” Natsu can feel his face heating up, but ignores it, or at least tries to. “Anyways, I would love to go with you. I mean, somebody has to make sure that you don’t break your other leg or something.”

“Yeah, just to make sure I don’t break my leg again.” The two refuse to break eye contact. The hospital lobby is bustling all around them, but neither seems to notice. Eventually, Natsu is forced to break their trance. 

“Well then, see you around, Kakashi. I actually have a mission in thirty, so I need to go get changed.”

“Yeah, bye, Natsu.”

Natsu rushes over to the hospital locker room, and shakes his head to himself with a smile. He initially only took the part-time hospital job as a means of making money, but now he is eternally grateful that he decided to take it. He puts on his flak jacket, forehead protector, and walks out of the hospital with a confident smile.  
\---  
It’s the evening of the festival, and Itachi’s helping Sasuke dress into his yukata. “It’s too stiff, nii-chan. It’s not comfy,” Sasuke complains.

“I know, Sasuke, but our father’s the Hokage. It would be unsightly if we go to the festival in our street clothes,” Itachi replies, even though he secretly agrees with his brother. After Itachi finally convinces Sasuke to stop loosening his obi belt too much, the pair of brothers meet Mikoto and Naruto at the front entrance of the house. Itachi and Sasuke’s yukata has a navy blue color scheme, Naruto has orange, and Mikoto has a floral one; all four of them have the Uchiha crests adorning the backs of their yukatas.

“Okay children, let’s swing by the Hokage Mansion, meet up with your father, walk around for a bit as a family, and then, Itachi, you can go off with your girl friend,” Mikoto says, wiggling her eyebrows. Itachi just rolls his eyes, knowing that his mother loves playing around with this sort of stuff, while Mikoto heartily laughs, grabbing Naruto and Sasuke’s hands. Much like on Naruto and Sasuke’s first day at the Academy, the four Uchiha bump into Shisui at the Uchiha district gates. 

“Good evening, Uchiha head family. I trust you all are doing mighty well on this fine evening and auspicious holiday.”

This time it’s Mikoto’s turn to roll her eyes. “Good evening to you as well, Shisui-kun. We were just on our way to meet up with Fugaku. Why don’t you join us?” Mikoto knows just how close Shisui and Itachi have become over the years, and the situation with Shisui’s father. Anything that can help the poor boy, Mikoto’s willing to do.

“I would be honored, Aunty Mikoto. Please lead the way.” Mikoto shakes her head again with a smile, something she does often in the presence of Shisui, and walks with Naruto and Sasuke to the Hokage Mansion.

Shisui and Itachi trail slightly behind, talking quietly with each other. “How’s your new pupil coming along, Itachi-sensei?” Shisui asks jokingly. 

“He’s making progress.”

“What? Just progress? You haven’t nurtured him into the genius of his generation yet?” Shisui says it jokingly, but Itachi still scoffs. From what he hears from Sasuke and Naruto, their generation is already brilliant. After the Nine-Tails incident, and having the war still in memory, many of the noble clans decided to finally have their heirs, meaning many of the clan heirs were born within a year of each other, placing them all in the same class. 

“He’s not from a ninja clan, Shisui-nii-san. You can’t just expect me to magically make him into a Hokage-level shinobi. Results come with hard work, you taught me that.” 

“I suppose. It is rather challenging to become a prominent ninja, and _not_ come from a shinobi clan.” The four of them meet up with Fugaku just outside the Hokage Mansion. Orochimaru waves the five of them off to have fun, and the Uchihas stroll around the stalls as the sun sets into the horizon. The Hokage’s family—plus Shisui—has to continuously turn down free offers by vendors to the dismay of Naruto who doesn’t yet understand the necessity of being humble. Sasuke just simply isn’t a foodie. 

When the family has walked around the festival a fair bit, and Shisui has already left to go do Shisui things, Fugaku sees it as an appropriate time as ever to allow Itachi to spread his wings a little. “Go have fun, Itachi. Be safe, be responsible, and be smart.” 

“Yeah, Itachi dear, go have fun! Sometime tonight, introduce us to this Utano girl, won’t you?”

“I will, Mother. Well then, I’ll be off, see you all later tonight I suppose.” Fugaku sends him off with a single nod; Mikoto and Naruto smile widely, and wave just as widely; Sasuke gives a small wave.  
\---  
Kakashi is sitting at his dining room table, frantically reading _Icha Icha Paradise_ to help him clear his nerves. Kakashi is not a man that dates. Hell, Kakashi considers himself a ninja before he even sees himself as a man. Since their very first conversation, even though Kakashi felt superbly pissed off at getting injured, he’s felt a sort of affinity towards the man named Natsu. But during that first appointment, the follow-ups, and the housecalls where Natsu came to check up on him (okay, that should have been his first clue that Natsu’s feelings weren’t completely platonic) Kakashi was able to keep Natsu at a distance. He was able to convince himself that Natsu wasn’t interested in him, or even gay. He’s just really passionate about his job. But when Kakashi heard the blonde say, “I’m gay too” Kakashi went into a gay panic. And Kakashi never panics. This month has been a month of many firsts for him.

Kakashi’s heart starts thumping when he hears knocking at the door. He yells a “I’m coming” as he hobbles over to the door on his crutches. Natsu’s been bringing over meals and such, more often than even Guy, another indication of his attraction that Kakashi chose to ignore and play off at him just being really good at his job. Kakashi wills his heart to shut up when he opens the door, and sees Natsu wearing a sky blue haori over a yukata. Kakashi’s mouth gapes slightly, but it’s thankfully covered by his mask. 

It looks… odd to say the least. Kakashi has only ever seen the man in a white lab coat or his green flak jacket. Kakashi himself is only wearing a long-sleeved black undershirt and the uniform-issued pants; usually, Kakashi at least wears his own flak jacket when interacting with Natsu. The whole situation feels personal, like they stripped away any sort of professionality. Here, they are not a doctor and a patient. They are not two shinobi. They are simply two people. Two people who are going to go to a festival together.

They greet each other, and Kakashi makes to leave for the festival, but Natsu stops him. “Can I actually come in for a bit before we go? I want to talk to you about something real quick.”  
Kakashi nods apprehensively, and opens the door wider. Natsu walks in, and on the back of his haori, in a white circle, there’s the kanji for “slug”. Natsu makes his way to sit on the lone couch in Kakashi’s apartment, and Kakashi sits next to him.

Natsu asks conversationally, “Isn’t that just your uniform? Don’t you have any festival wear?”

Kakashi shrugs, and responds, “I haven’t attended a festival in a while. None of my yukata fit anymore, but I’ve never bothered buying any new ones. What about you? What’s the ‘slug’ all about?” Kakashi can do this “talk”. But the “talk” that Natsu wants to talk about doesn’t seem to be about fashion, and that uncertainty scares Kakashi; although, he doesn’t show it.

Natsu looks like he’s reminiscing. “Oh, this?” he turns around and points at the back of his haori. “It was a birthday gift from my mother. She gave me a different one initially actually, but it said ‘gamble’ on the back and was an exact replica of the one she wore, so I begged her to buy me a new one. The only new kanji that we both could agree on was ‘slug’.”

“It’s nice.”

“Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about what we discussed last time in the hospital room.” Natsu pulls out a box out of his pocket. Kakashi’s lone eye widens into a plate, thoughts shooting at a mile a minute, before the implication clicks in Natsu’s brain. “Wait! No! I’m not proposing.” Kakashi relaxes immediately. Sure, he likes the guy, but it’s a little too soon for marriage. 

Natsu tries again. “I know that we haven’t known each other for that long, but I want you to promise me the same thing that I promised my mother years ago.” Kakashi waits with bated breath for him to finish. 

“I want you to promise me that you won’t die.” He opens the box, and there’s a necklace of a dragon in it. Kakashi doesn’t know what to say. He looks up, and sees Natsu looking at him intently. 

“Kakashi, it’s okay to feel _guilt_ , but you shouldn’t feel _guilty_. Death is just something that happens in this Shinobi World, it’s the reason why I was never able to meet my father or uncle. But we’ll never get the ones that we’ve lost back, so the only thing we can do now is try to change this cruel world ourselves, and the only way to do that is to live. I don’t know what our future holds, or if we even have a future together in the first place. But I want to ensure that _you_ have a future.” 

Kakashi wordlessly accepts the box, and gently takes it out. “It’s beautiful,” he says. It has a sleek silver chain, and a glimmering dragon pendant. He holds it out to Natsu. “Help me put it on?” Natsu helps put the necklace on Kakashi with gentle fingers. 

After he helps Kakashi put the necklace on, Natsu hugs him from behind: Kakashi’s back against Natsu’s chest, Natsu leaning his head on Kakashi’s right shoulder. No matter how apathetic, stoic, or cold-blooded a person may seem, everybody deserves a hug once in a while. Kakashi hasn’t been the person receiving a hug in years; it rejuvenates something inside of him. Something he has lost since he lost his mother, father, sensei, Obito, and Rin. Kakashi grabs one of Natsu’s hands. 

“Thank you, Natsu,” Kakashi whispers so quietly, a wisp of wind could have drowned him out. But Natsu hears. He hears loud and clear.  
\---  
Itachi meets up with Utano on the bench that started it all. Utano’s also wearing a yukata, her auburn hair clipped in a hair ornament. They make eye-contact and smile at each other. 

They have no need for greetings, they just wordlessly walk together to the main part of the festival. It’s nearing dusk, and the festival’s in full swing. Lanterns light up the streets, vendors and food stalls line the streets, carnival games set up in open areas, and many participants are wearing traditional attire, laughing and talking in pairs and groups. Itachi buys sweets to share with Utano, while Utano buys savory snacks to share with Itachi. Itachi shows off his ninja prowess in carnival games, and accumulates masses of prizes to split between the two. 

He’s never had this much fun at a festival before. In the past, festivals were merely an obligation for Itachi: He would walk around with his family, maybe even with Shisui, but that was it. In past festival’s he was the Hokage’s son first and foremost. Eventually, the pair just happens to bump into the rest of Itachi’s family, but judging from his mother’s look, Itachi feels like it was no coincidence. 

“Oh? Is that you, Itachi dear? We were just walking by, and I thought I recognized you. You must be Utano. It’s lovely meeting you. Please, call me Mikoto.”

“Yes, I am Utano. It’s a pleasure meeting you, Mikoto-san. Hokage-sama,” Utano says as she gives a little bow.

“My, my. You have such manners! I just hope that Itachi’s not causing you any trouble.” Mikoto then moves next to her, and whispers into her ear, “He may not really be a people person, but he’s still a good kid, dear. He’s had a… different childhood from most.” Mikoto doesn’t really know how, but Itachi’s always been very mature and intelligent for his age. 

But the scene playing out before her contradicts her thoughts: Itachi is stuffing plushies into Naruto and Sasuke arms, puts a toad hat on Naruto’s head, and cat ears on Sasuke’s head. Naruto tells him to bend down, he complies, and Naruto puts a shark hat on Itachi’s head. The three of them laugh heartily before turning to Fugaku, who looks back at them with wide eyes and genuine fear.

Utano and Mikoto laugh at their antics too, while Utano says through wheezes of breath. “Mikoto-san, I think you can stop worrying about Itachi-kun. I don’t really know much about ninjas, but even I can tell that he’s an exemplary ninja, and an even better friend.”

Eventually, Utano and Itachi say farewell to a positively ecstatic Mikoto, a seemingly unamused Fugaku wearing swirly glasses, a pleased, toad hat wearing Naruto, and a delighted, cat ear wearing Sasuke to meet up with Utano’s friends before the firework show starts. Itachi doesn’t really know what to expect, but Utano’s reassuring smiles and glances help calm his nerves. 

The pair meet up with the other twelve year olds, and Utano quickly makes introductions. As the group is walking around, Itachi thinks, _they seem normal_. The group looks like any other group of twelve year olds enjoying a festival, except for maybe Itachi’s ridiculous shark hat that he refuses to take off to Utano’s amusement (he doesn’t even particularly like sharks). 

Itachi is quickly assimilated into the group's conversation. He’s taken aback because they’re just so _trusting_. If this was a group of shinobi, he would have been met with cursory glances, and vague words. But these people seem genuinely curious in Itachi’s answers. They ask things like if he’s still going to school, or if he’s taking an apprenticeship. He replies that he’s a ninja, and the group immediately seem fascinated by him like he’s an enigma. Utano whispers into his ear that even though they live in the Hidden Leaf, none of them have any ties with shinobi whatsoever. They are truly just regular civilians, just regular preteens.

The group walks around the festival, trying and sharing different delicacies with each other when the preliminary firework, signaling that the main show will start in five minutes, fires off into the night sky. The group rushes to climb a nearby building to get better seats to the amusement of Itachi, who watches how the non-shinobi climb the building. He can easily Body Flicker to the rooftop, but he decides to scale the building like the rest of them, not even using chakra. Eventually, all of them make it on the roof safely, sharing snacks and stories, waiting for the show to start.  
\---  
It’s already dusk by the time Natsu and Kakashi make it to the main festival area. Natsu slows his pace considerably to match Kakashi’s slow hobbling on his crutches. Kakashi buys food and drinks to share with Natsu, but the blonde turns down any offers Kakashi has to buy him things that aren't to share. And when Natsu does buy something for himself, it’s always the absolute cheapest thing on the menu. When Kakashi questions him about this, Natsu replies with a shrug, eating a defective takoyaki, “My mother was never good with money. I guess I just grew up to be stingy.”

The two walk—well, Kakashi hobbles—around for a bit, just basking in the merry aura radiating from the Hidden Leaf residents, when Kakashi spots Kurenai sitting alone at a table, sipping on a milk tea. Kakashi and Natsu make their way towards the genjutsu-shinobi, and she seems lost in thought. They sit directly across from her, but she still doesn’t notice them, so Kakashi clears his throat. She immediately looks up, visibly relaxing when she sees that it’s only Kakashi. 

“Kakashi, what are you doing here? I thought that festivals weren’t really your thing.”

“Well, you could say that I’ve had a change of heart. By the way, Natsu, this is Kurenai. Kurenai, Natsu.” The two shake hands with a smile. After the fact, Kurenai gives Kakashi a look that he promptly ignores. “Why are you sitting here alone? Isn’t Guy or Anko with you or something?”

Kurenai is about to respond, when Kakashi feels a crushing weight on his shoulders. “Kakashi! This isn’t like you to attend a festival. Did hell freeze over?” Kakashi looks behind him and sees Asuma leaning on his back, holding two skewers of ikayaki.

Kakashi rolls his lone eye. “I know how to have fun, you know.” Asuma gets off of him, and sits next to Kurenai, giving her a skewer.

“I’m Asuma, by the way,” he tells Natsu, and Natsu introduces himself as well. “So? Are you two on a date?”

Natsu sputters in his seat, while Kakashi calmly answers, “Yes, we are actually. How about you and Kurenai?” Now it’s Asuma and Kurenai’s turn to fluster. Kakashi feels pretty satisfied with himself before continuing. “Besides, when did you even get back? Don’t you have that Guardian Shinobi Twelve thing?”

“I came back to the Leaf a couple of days ago. The Guardian Shinobi Twelve is over.” 

Kakashi is about to reply, when he hears a certain voice. A certain very loud voice. When he hears running, he knows that his fate is sealed. “Kakashi! Is that you, Kakashi! Alas, my eternal rival has realized his youth, and has finally joined us for a festival!”

Kakashi turns around in his seat, and sees Guy coming towards them, moving his body as much as humanly possible, Anko lazily trailing behind him, eating a dango skewer with one of her hands in her trench coat. He gives them a curt wave before quickly turning back in his seat: Asuma and Kurenai don’t seem surprised at all, but Natsu seems slightly concerned about the character quickly approaching their table. 

“Don’t worry,” Kakashi reassures Natsu. “He’s a close friend.” Guy finally reaches their table, followed shortly after by Anko. The group of friends make their greetings, and Kakashi introduces Natsu for the last time of the night. 

“Hi, I’m Anko.”

“Natsu-san, the pleasure is truly all mine in meeting you. I am Might Guy, the Leaf’s Noble Green Beast. But I see that you are sitting awfully close to Kakashi. Don’t tell me. Are you Kakashi’s new eternal rival?” Natsu tries to reject the claim, but Guy just keeps on going. “Are my ninja skills not up to par with Kakashi anymore? Yosh! I’m going to train my absolute hardest, and then, Natsu-san, we shall see who really is Kakashi’s eternal rival!”

Guy immediately jumps down, and starts doing one finger push ups, while Anko sits on his back, causing him to instantly collapse. “Congrats on finding a boo, Kakashi.” 

Kakashi puts a hand on the back of his head in mock embarrassment, while Natsu stares at the table, questioning his life choices. Kurenai silently hands him her squid skewer, and simply says, “You get used to it.”

Kakashi observes the scene around him: Guy’s still completing his push ups with Anko egging him on, and starting to match his energy; Kurenai is politely questioning Natsu about his personal life; Asuma’s looking at him with one of his eyebrows raised. Kakashi shakes his head, causing Asuma’s eyebrow to lower, and they quietly chat about Asuma’s time in the Guardian Shinobi Twelve. Kakashi externally shows a mask of indifference on his face, but on the inside he’s eternally grateful. He’s been absent from his friend group for so long, yet they still welcome him with open arms like nothing even happened. 

The six of them bask in the festival’s merriments, until they hear the preliminary firework. Like a group of school kids, they all shoot up to their feet—except for Kakashi, who still has a broken leg—and excitedly start looking for a nearby, empty building to climb. When they find one, Guy picks up Kakashi bridal style, with a nice-guy smile lighting up his face. Kakashi rolls his lone eye, but allows it to happen anyways, passing his crutches to Natsu with a smile hidden under his mask. The six of them safely make it to the rooftop, sit in a big group, and face the Hokage Mountain, waiting for the show to start.  
\---  
The first firework goes off with a bang. The brightly colored flower illuminates the night sky, its light cascading onto the five great stone heads right underneath it. More shoot into the sky, a field of huge flowers materializing on the black canvas overhead. Itachi flails his arms behind him to help him support his body to look up into the painted night sky easier. Itachi looks up at the glittering flowers in delight, Utano right next to him. She holds the stuffed crow that Itachi gave her close to her chest. As the show goes on, they inch closer and closer until their shoulders start touching. For the first time in a while, Itachi truly feels himself. Here, he’s not a shinobi, son, older brother, or even sensei. He’s just simply Itachi, plain and simple.  
\---  
Kakashi is nearly lying down, but he keeps his arms outstretched behind himself to keep his back 45 degrees off of the rooftop. Natsu is sitting cross legged right next to him, bending his head up high, his eyes entranced on the glimmering fireworks. To Natsu’s right, Asuma and Kurenai are lying down, pointing out their favorite fireworks to each other. To Kakashi’s left, Guy is admiring the fireworks while doing sit ups, Anko’s sitting on his feet, leaning her back against his bent legs, sipping a sickeningly sweet milk tea. Kakashi sits up, and wraps an arm around Natsu’s shoulder, Natsu leaning into him. 

Kakashi closes his lone, exposed eye, and offers a silent prayer. _Forgive me, Obito, Rin. For far too long, I’ve been wasting this precious life that you two helped protect. There’s more to being a ninja than just completing missions. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. I may not have left them for dead, but I abandoned them nevertheless. Never again. I’ll never do it ever again. I’m done wasting this life that you sacrificed so much to protect_. 

Kakashi opens his eye, and he swears that he sees Obito and Rin’s smiling faces among the fireworks. He pulls Natsu even closer to his side. Just one person who’s willing to listen to an earful of troubles, and offer idealistic advice, can be the catalyst to pull another person out of a sea of despair. “Thank you,” Kakashi whispers into Natsu’s ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that the Kakashi and Natsu thing didn't feel too fast, or too out of left field. They are ninja after all who can literally die on any given mission. btw, Obito and Madara are like dead dead. Anyways, thanks for reading, giving kudos, and/or commenting (I haven't been responding to them, but I still read and appreciate them!) Again, you da best.


	13. Snow and Sand

It’s snowing, and Orochimaru absolutely hates the snow. Snakes are cold-blooded creatures, so it should be no surprise that the snake sage loathes the cold. Orochimaru has to pull his snake patterned scarf tighter around his neck when he steps outside from his home. Walking to the Hokage Mansion, he sees snowmen decorating the streets, the result of children waking up early just to play in the cold, white powder from hell. Orochimaru wants so much to kick one of the smiling snowmen, but even he isn’t that heartless to actually do so.

The snake sage trudges his way through the snow, willing his hands not to wrap around himself, for that is a sign of weakness. Even in the most mundane, everyday things, the snake Sannin tries everything in his power to appear strong and commanding. With the exception of perhaps the Second Hokage (who only became Hokage after Madara, the supposed next-in-line, betrayed the village), the Hokages of the past typically appeared distinguished, diplomatic, and sociable while their second-in-command lurked in the shadows, playing underhanded tricks for the glory of the Village and image of the Hokage. Tobirama for the First, Danzo for the Third, and now Orochimaru for the Fourth and Fifth; although, even Orochimaru has to admit that Danzo was a tad bit extreme, if not really fucking sinister. 

Orochimaru reminisces as he walks through the snow, his boots smashing imprints in the pristine white powder. He works too hard. His gait is similar to a king walking though his kingdom, but his mind is overrun with too many miniscule things like some lowly secretary. Too many things to keep track of. His generation was basically annihilated during the Second and Third Shinobi Wars. Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade’s names will live in infamy because anybody that could have challenged them for their achievements live in a grave. The Legendary Sannin of the Hidden Leaf had to train with the snakes, toads, and slugs in order to become sages because they had to compensate for the cold bodies underground that make up their current class. War is a reaper of souls, and Orochimaru will be damned if he lets another war happen while he lives. Pain is his pleasure, but grief brings the sadistic man no happiness.

Orochimaru is suddenly snapped back into reality when he steps into the Hokage office. He takes out the daily memo and schedule out of a coat pocket, lays it neatly on Fugaku’s desk, and wipes away a speck of dust on a picture frame displaying the Hokage’s family. Orochimaru once dreamed long ago what it would feel like to have a family. To have a doting wife or even a gruff husband. To have children that would depend on him with their very lives. To have grandchildren to pass on all of his wisdom and jutsu to because, obviously, his own children wouldn’t deserve such a high honor. Alas, that is only a distant dream now. While Fugaku spends time with his family, Orochimaru drafts budget plans and trade agreements. To Orochimaru, the very village is his family; however, that doesn’t take the sting of longing away from him.

After, Orochimaru steps back towards the middle of the room, and looks at the northern wall with all of the Hokage official portraits. He tells himself that he’s already satisfied with his work for the Village. That he can’t even fathom his own portrait on the northern wall. But the snake sage is an expert at lying. Even to himself. Especially to himself. Putting self-deprecating thoughts aside, Orochimaru cackles to himself when he sees his old teacher’s portrait: Old Man Sarutobi looks too young, he was younger than Orochimaru is now when the photo was taken. The portrait of his old sensei is missing all of the wrinkles that he would gain having to guide a young Jiraiya through ninjahood. Obviously, Orochimaru, and Tsunade he supposes, were absolutely perfect students—perfect, exemplar shinobi. Only after his training with the toads did Jiraiya catch up with his squadmates.

But one glance to the right dulls his mood right away. Minato is even younger than the newly-appointed Hiruzen next to him, but he will never get to be as old as Sandaime is now. Orochimaru is one of the few people in the Village who knows exactly what happened on the night of October 10th that year. 

It was a simple tragedy; the seal was just loosened ever too loosely. After, it was just a case of misfortune and an old man’s greed: the Sannin were all out of the Village on various missions, Hiruzen was recovering from a minor surgery (his damn smoking habits finally got the better of him), Danzo ordered all Uchiha away from the Nine-Tails while Minato was busy fighting instead of delegating, Kushina died immediately after the extraction, and against one of the great tailed beasts, Minato was forced his hand to use the Reaper Death Seal, and seal the Nine-Tails into his son in order to prevent the Kyuubi from entering the Village proper. 

Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen scoured the scene for any foul play whatsoever, but found none. And so life went on. Uchiha Fugaku became Lord Fifth, poor little Naruto was adopted into the Uchihas, and Danzo “commited suicide” after his failed attempt to lead a leaderless village. Orochimaru wouldn’t _say_ that he hated Danzo, but he really, utterly, fucking hated that sorry, old, poor excuse of a man. Orochimaru couldn’t murder the man in truly cold blood, but when he had a very good excuse to finally kill him, the snake sage damn well took it. 

For being called Fugaku of the Wicked Eye, Orochimaru is grateful that the Uchiha turned a blind eye over the Danzo incident. Unlike Danzo, Orochimaru truly believes that it’s better to have friends than enemies.

Orochimaru could never forgive Danzo for the crimes that he committed. Whether he intended to or not, Danzo killed the Fourth Hokage because of his insistence of keeping the “evil” Uchiha in a cage, among other hidden crimes that haven’t and may never come to light. Orochimaru plays dirty, but he does not play foul. Orochimaru may kick somebody into the mud, but he won’t backstab them (unless one’s name is Danzo) and murder their family. He loathes to admit it, but Hiruzen’s stupid pacifistic teachings do rub off on him some. Danzo cried that what he does is for the Village, but the Village has no need for a war criminal and traitor against humanity. 

Orochimaru looks out the window, to see Fugaku approaching the building with Itachi of all people. Orochimaru immediately creeps his way out of the Hokage’s office to go to his own that was designated to him when he became Jonin Commander. There was an argument once upon a time to make Shikaku the Jonin Commander, but the bastard didn’t even want to be considered. Orochimaru carefully raises an eyebrow, at a letter at his desk with a note saying, _Sorry I forgot to give this to you earlier, Orochimaru-sama_ , but opens it nonetheless.  
\---  
Fugaku decides to bring Itachi to work with him on a whim. His heir is growing up, but he’s still rather worried that Itachi doesn’t seem to have any ambition in himself whatsoever. Fugaku hopes that seeing how the Village operates from the inside will help Itachi strive to want to become a leader—be it the Hokage or the next Police Captain. 

The pair enter the Hokage’s office, and Itachi plops onto one of the couches, sitting very cordially, while Fugaku skims over his daily memo from Orochimaru. Itachi coughs politely into his hand, then starts fiddling his fingers, unsure of what to do with himself. Fugaku starts getting his papers and documents organized for the day when Orochimaru barges into the room.

“Hokage-sama, the Kazekage has finally accepted our request for a diplomatic meeting. The only caveat is that he desires that you bring your family with you. He asks that it occur in a week and a half, so you will need to leave in two days, a tad early, since Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun don’t have the stamina to get to Suna at full speed yet. I will make all the necessary preparations.”

“Hold on, Orochimaru. I’m glad that the Kazekage has finally come to his senses, but why would he request that I bring my family? This isn’t a trap I hope.”

“No. The Hidden Sand is already overrun with internal strife, so he wouldn’t dare antagonize not only the Leaf, but also the entire Uchiha clan. I suspect that the Kazekage wants to use your family as leverage to show the Suna officials that he has a personal association with the mighty Leaf, and use that perceived association to gain the full support of his officials. It’s a bit underhanded, but I think it’s in our best interest to have Rasa stay as Kazekage rather than have some nationalistic dumbass get elected.”

“Why would appearing close to the Hokage gain the support of Sand officials?” Itachi pipes up from his seat on the couch. He looks back and forth between his father and Orochimaru in search of an answer. Fugaku is internally delighted that Itachi took the initiative to ask about such political affairs, but he hides it well. Fugaku doesn’t necessarily have dynastical ambitions. He just wants all three of his children to earn success with, obviously, the Hokage seat being the very pinnacle of success for a Leaf shinobi.

“Well, Itachi-kun,” Orochimaru pivots to face the boy. “Since your father became Hokage and the Uchiha pledged their unyielding support for the Leaf, our military prowess has steadily been on the rise. Some of the most aptly skilled police officers switched over to the shinobi forces, while some of the more mediocre shinobi became police officers. Simply, the addition of many skilled Sharingan users were added to our shinobi forces, and Konoha’s strength greatly raised, intimidating the other Hidden Villages. The Kazekage has probably realized the merits of making a true alliance with us; something we’ve been trying to do since Yondaime’s reign.” 

“That is absolutely correct. And, Itachi, you heard Orochimaru. You’re coming as my son, not as a member of the Anbu. Remember to smile when in the presence of the Kazekage and his family.”

“Of course, Father.”  
\---  
After school, Naruto starts making snowmen with Kiba, Akamaru, Choji, and Shikamaru. Naruto gives his own whiskers, Kiba’s looks a little more animalistic than normal, Choji’s is a bit more rotund, and Shikamaru’s is just a pile of snow that he’s sitting on. Sasuke and his posse walk by Naruto’s, so obviously Naruto throws a snowball at his brother with a grin. He deftly dodges it, but it hits Sakura squarely in the face. 

“Cha!” Sakura yells as she quickly picks up a clump of snow, rolls it into a ball, and chucks it right towards Naruto with all her might. Kiba notices that his comrade Naruto has been hit, so Kiba throws a snowball towards Sasuke’s group, and hits Ino. Sai sees this, and throws a snowball right back at Kiba. Naruto’s lone snowball snowballed all of the six and seven year olds into a snowball fight. 

It’s a battle royale of laughs, fists full of snow, and fun. Sasuke and Sakura stand back-to-back hurling snowballs at their classmates. Naruto notices a timid Hinata, and protects her before she gets hit with an onslaught of snowballs. Ino and Sai start arguing over who hit more people, and start chucking snowballs at each other, disregarding their other classmates. Shikamaru sits by a tree, and flings snowballs from a sitting position, not having a care in the world who he hits. Choji makes a little snow fort, throwing snowballs from the protection of his castle. Shino makes a fort across from Choji, and the two start duking it out. Kiba and Akamaru ambush Shikamaru’s lazy throwing, drawing him closer to the fray. 

Snowballs are thrown, hit, and dodged. Mouths scream, shout, and smile. War is raged against each other, their inner shinobi blood boiling with the prospect of victory. For Naruto, how many people can he hit? For Sasuke, how many snowballs can he dodge? For Sakura, how many strategies can she come up with? In the mock war of snowballs, ideals and strategies that they’ve been taught since birth subconsciously run through all of their heads. Victory. Victory. Victory. But with no defined rules for their battle, victory is defined differently for many of them. In the end, all of them come out victorious. Oh, how wonderful is the springtime of youth. 

After a while, their excitement calms down. The kids talk among themselves about kid things. They gossip about other classmates, show communal dismay over the recently assigned reading, and poke jabs at each other. Naruto is the loudest in the group, unknowingly dominating the conversation, but nobody seems to mind his very protagonist-like energy. He notices that Hinata starts shivering, so he simply unwraps his own scarf, and off-handedly hands it over to the Hyuga while talking to Kiba about a prank he has planned for their next class session. A small gesture of kindness for some, but it’s one of the nicest things somebody has ever done for her. Hinata widens her white eyes, but accepts it with a gentle smile, wrapping the vermillion scarf around her neck. 

Ino swings an arm around Sakura’s shoulders, leaning in to whisper into her ear. “Ohhh. Did you see that, Billboard Brow? I think Hinata liiiikes him,” Ino practically coos. Sakura scoffs and pushes the blond off of her. 

If the Akimichi clan embody the body, and the Nara represent the mind, then the Yamanaka personify the soul. Ino just naturally has an affinity with feelings, moods, and emotions, but her behavior was only augmented by her mother. In the humble little Yamanaka Flower Shop that Ino was raised in, her mother is akin to a relationship counselor. Ino was raised in the arms of a woman who gave away relationship advice with every exhale of breath. For Ino’s mother, poking and prodding for gossip is simply a way of life. After all, a lovesick man will buy more expensive flowers when he thinks he has a chance. 

The sun sets lower in the sky, and the friends say farewell as parents start coming by to pick them up. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai are the last ones left; Naruto has finally settled down after all of the excitement from the afternoon. Sasuke and Sai quietly chat about a new jutsu Iruka-sensei taught them. Mikoto shows up, and waves her two boys over to her.

“Bye, Sai. See you at school,” Sasuke tells him while Naruto puts on a tired grin and waves a farewell to Sai. A little ways away, Sasuke looks behind him, his hand clasped into Mikoto’s, and sees Sai walking off alone, not a parent to be found.  
\---  
Itachi feels Sasuke dragging beside him as he holds his brother’s hand. They are on their way to the Hidden Sand, and are trudging their way through the course, rough, sand. Itachi can feel the presence of a hidden Team Kakashi all around them, protecting the Hokage’s family from the shadows. Fugaku is leading his family, Hokage hat and haori representing his authority and status. Itachi and Sasuke closely follow behind their father, and are trailed by Mikoto and Naruto. It’s technically Sasuke and Naruto’s first real “mission” and Naruto is brimming with excitement as Sasuke deflates with each passing step. Naruto excitedly bragged to his friends about missing at least a week of school for “official Hokage business”. Obviously, Sasuke, Naruto, and Itachi aren’t expected to do anything except look pretty and maybe make buddies with the Kazekage’s family. 

“Come on, Sasuke. You’ll wreak your shoes if you keep dragging your feet like that,” Itachi reprimands his brother. 

“Don’t worry, Sasuke dear. We’ll take a break at a nearby village soon,” Mikoto calls from behind them in a singsong voice. 

So the five of them walk, walk, and walk until they finally reach the promised village where Sasuke can rest. Fugaku books them a single, large room—flexing his Hokage mantle even though they are well within Wind Country—since it’s easier to protect one room than multiple. 

Sasuke immediately meanders to the middle of the room, lies down, and nods off. Itachi hears Mikoto tsk about Sasuke already sleeping without eating dinner, but she settles down against a wall next to Fugaku anyways, leaning her head on his shoulder. Naruto follows his brother to the middle, while Itachi lodges himself on the opposite wall of his parents. Itachi can just sense Team Kakashi surrounding the room for protection.

Eventually, Itachi feels himself start nodding off as well, and the last image that he sees is his father finally taking off his Hokage hat, Naruto walking towards it, and Fugaku shaking his head slightly at the oversized hat sitting atop Naruto’s head. Itachi leans his head against the wall, falling into an uncharacteristically deep slumber.  
\---  
Mikoto hears it first. The subtle clash of metal echoing through the night. She jolts Fugaku awake who is in a deep slumber in order to compensate for the restless nights he will surely have during the days of the upcoming summit. The two of them immediately jump up, their first instinct is protecting the kids in the room. Fugaku moves a sleeping Itachi next to his brothers, while Mikoto whips out two scrolls: one summons her fabled bow and arrow, the other summons Fugaku’s three section staff.

Fugaku then creates two shadow clones. The real Fugaku receives his three section staff, entering a defensive stance facing the door. Mikoto faces the wall with a large window, with an arrow notched and ready in a bow. The shadow clones face the last two walls with kunai already in their hands, protecting Sasuke, Naruto, and Itachi from all four sides. 

The window opens, causing Mikoto to instantly raise her bow, but she yields when Kakashi shows his face, and one of Fugaku’s clones nods his head with his Sharingan activated, signaling that the man is indeed the real Kakashi.

“Hokage-sama, Mikoto-sama, my team is currently engaged in battle between what appears to be Sand shinobi—or former Sand shinobi. Yamato has confirmed that most, if not all, of their hitai-ate have a cross over the Sand insignia, so make of that as you will.” 

Mikoto is about to respond, but Kakashi disappears in a poof. “A shadow clone,” Fugaku responds from behind her. And the three Fugakus and Mikoto take defensive positions, a tense feeling wafting through the air.  
\---  
Itachi slowly feels himself waking up. The first thing he notices is that he’s no longer against the wall he fell asleep at, so he jerks up. He’s sitting in the middle of the room, Sasuke is curled up against Naruto; although, Itachi has known Naruto long enough to know that he isn’t actually asleep. Itachi looks up around him, and sees his father wielding a three section staff facing the door, his mother with a bow and arrow facing the window, and his father’s shadow clones facing the other two walls. 

Wordlessly, Itachi activates his Sharingan, and jumps up to stand beside his mother. She wordlessy tosses him two kunai. “Team Kakashi is fighting some defective Sand shinobi, Itachi dear. We don’t know how many, but be alert and on guard,” she whispers to him.

“Yes, Mother.” It’s kind of weird. Itachi has never been on a mission with his mother before. This is his first time seeing her ninja side.

Suddenly, an explosion ripples through his skin. It’s enough to pull Naruto out of his faux sleep, and Sasuke out of his real sleep. The two kids sit up scared, eyes flashing to their two parents and older brother.

“Don’t worry, Naruto dear, Sasuke dear. We’ll protect you,” Mikoto says soothingly. But that sentiment is juxtaposed when a man wielding a katana suddenly bursts through the door. Mikoto grabs Naruto dragging him to the opposite side of the room while Itachi grabs Sasuke to do the same.

“The Hidden Sand will never back down to the disgusting Leaf. You preach for peace and pacifism, but expand your military? Laughable! The proud people of the Sand will never bow down to you fucking vile creatures. We will never forget that you fucking clowns started the Third War,” the man roars animalistically. 

One of Fugaku’s clones back up to the rest of his family while the other clone assists the real Fugaku in engaging the Sand shinobi—or what seems to be a former Sand shinobi judging by the cross on his hitai-ate. Fugaku swings his three section staff at the Sand shinobi’s feet; the nature of their environment prevents him from using any big jutsus. The Sand shinobi jumps over it with a crazed cackle, swinging his katana down over Fugaku’s head, but clone Fugaku parries the attack with one of his kunai.

Itachi considers bringing Naruto and Sasuke outside through the window, but he hears the clashing of metal outside too. The four of them are stuck in the inn room. But Itachi glances at his mother, noticing her sign a couple of hand seals. The metal tip of her arrow starts buzzing with electricity, and with his Sharingan notices his father slightly smirk. 

In a flash, Fugaku dodges a swipe of the katana, Mikoto draws and releases an electricity-tinged arrow, Fugaku throws his staff to the side, grabs a kunai from his clone, and slashes the neck of the Sand shinobi who got momentarily paralyzed by the arrow. Itachi looks behind him to find a horrified looking Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto’s lip is quivering; Sasuke is outright crying. Mikoto notices too, and pulls the two boys into a hug. 

Fugaku walks back to his family, covered in blood, and notices Itachi looking back and forth between him and his younger brothers. “They had to learn eventually, Itachi. This is the reality of being a ninja.” Naruto and Sasuke look at their dad, still in their mom’s arms. “Say, Naruto. Do you still want to become Hokage?”

Naruto nods slightly. “Then you need to become stronger so you don’t have to cower in a corner during every fight.” Now, Naruto nods even more resolutely while Sasuke sinks further into his mother’s arms.  
\---  
 _A Few Days Earlier_

_“Hokage-sama, you must cancel your summit to the Hidden Sand. I have just gained intel that some Sand insurgents are planning to attack you and your family during your trip,” Orochimaru hastily says as he bursts into the Hokage’s office._

_Fugaku scoffs. “Some random Sand insurgents won’t be enough to take down Mikoto, Itachi, and myself.”_

_“May I remind you, Hokage-sama, that you will have little Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun on this trip with you. They are not ninja yet.”_

_Fugaku doesn’t even bother looking up from what he’s doing. “It will be a teaching moment. Those boys have yet to see a true shinobi battle, so this will be a great time to show them. And besides, it will clear any doubts that the Kazekage might have if we take care of them ourselves. He will surely be in our debt.”_

_“If that’s what you wish, Hokage-sama.” Orochimaru feels that Naruto will definitely learn from the experience, but he’s a little apprehensive about Sasuke. Nonetheless, it’s not Orochimaru’s place to lecture his village leader on how to raise his kids._  
\---  
The Hokage’s entourage makes it to the Hidden Sand the day after the incident with little to no fanfare. The five of them are fitted into tradition Sand attire before meeting with the Kazekage and his family. Naruto is in awe as he watches his dad walk through the Hidden Sand wearing his Hokage haori over his Sand robes and donning his Hokage hat. Naruto is proud to be the son of not one, but two Hokage. Fugaku often tells Naruto about the triumphs of his other dad—Minato, the Yellow Flash of the Leaf—while Itachi tells him about Fugaku of the Wicked Eye. 

They are guided into the Kazekage’s building by a Hidden Sand official. It’s very… sandy. Naruto looks at everything in awe. It’s his first time truly experiencing a new culture. The citizens of the Sand wear heavier clothes than he’s used to. His robes weigh down heavier on him than the snow jacket he wore just a couple of days prior in the Leaf. The people also just seem much harsher. In the Leaf, passing citizens meet him with smiles and greetings, but here, the people are cold (ironic considering they live in a desert) and meet him with dry stares. 

Naruto and his family are finally led into the reception room where they will finally meet the Kazekage and his family. When they walk in, Fugaku and the Kazekage gracefully bow to each other, both with their Kage hats sitting atop their heads.

“Hokage-dono, although it may be rather late, I humbly greet you and your family into the Hidden Sand Village, and my residence.”

“My family and I are glad to be here. I certainly hope that our meeting will be fruitful.”

“Of course. Now, let us start with introductions.” He waves a blond girl forward. “This is Temari, my oldest.” He then waves a brown haired boy to step forward. “And this is Kankuro. Unfortunately, my youngest has grown ill, so I don’t think you will be meeting him on this trip.”

Fugaku looks unconvinced. “Yes, unfortunate indeed.” But starts introductions of his own. “This is my lovely wife, Mikoto. My oldest, Itachi. And then Sasuke and Naruto.” Mikoto princess waves; Itachi and Sasuke nod their heads slightly; Naruto’s grin splits his face while he waves enthusiastically.

“Now then,” Rasa, the Kazekage, claps his hands. “Temari, why don’t you take the Hokage’s children to the courtyard and play while us adults discuss business.”

Temari responds, “Yes, Father,” but even Naruto can see that she doesn’t look too pleased when she starts leading the children away. He swears that he hears her mutter, “Why do I have to play with them? I’m not a kid anymore.” His suspicions are confirmed when he catches Itachi’s eye, and he shakes his head slightly. 

When they make it to the courtyard, it’s… awkward. Naruto, the most playful and jovial among his siblings, doesn’t even know what to do. Naruto scratches his cheek before clapping and breaking the silence. “Okay! What do you guys do for fun in the Hidden Sand? Kick the bottle? Marbles? Ooh, do you guys make sandcastles? Just the other day I was building snowmen with my friends…”

Naruto’s rambling trails off when neither of the Sand siblings respond to his questions. Okay, none of them look happy to be here, but this is Naruto’s first mission! Before they left the Village, Fugaku told his kids to make friends with the Kazekage’s family, for they’ll be “close allies in the future”. Well, judging from Itachi and Sasuke’s attitudes, Naruto looks to be the only one trying! 

“Hey, hey! Let’s play hide-n-seek!” Naruto tries as one last attempt to be friendly.

Temari scoffs. “Why would we want to play some childish game like that? Right, Kankuro?” Kankuro nods in affirmation to his older sister.

Naruto harrumphs while Itachi and Sasuke remain passive. “Hmph, you’re just scared of losing to people who aren’t even from your village. Obviously, us true ninjas would be able to hide goodly even in places we’ve never been to before.”

“Hah? Listen, you brat, Kankuro and I would never lose to the likes of you. Okay, who’s counting?”

Naruto is giddy on the inside. To his surprise, Shisui was right. Words really do have the power to get people to do what you want. That went a lot better than he was expecting. Shisui said it was called “rhetoric” or something, but Itachi always calls it “talk no jutsu”, and that’s what Naruto calls it too.

“I’ll be the seeker if that’s fine with you all,” Itachi suddenly says. He looks more amused than anything at Naruto’s antics. 

Obviously, neither Naruto nor Sasuke argue with him, but Temari and Kankuro don’t either. “Fine. Count down from 100, anywhere in the Kazekage building is fair game, and the last to be found wins,” Temari declares. They all collectively agree, albeit silently, that they aren’t playing for anything except for the taste of victory. 

So, Itachi closes his eyes, and starts counting down from 100. Temari and Kankuro immediately Body Flicker away to the panic of Naruto. _That’s not fair_ , Naruto thinks, _we haven’t learned how to do that yet!_ Naruto and Sasuke scuttle their feet away in opposite directions. 

Naruto dashes through the corridors of the Kazekage building. Custodians pay him no attention, and many Sand officials are in conference with the Kazekage and Hokage, so there’s nobody to scald him for his reckless behavior. Left turn here, right turn there, and… he’s lost. Huh, he’s never seen that painting before. Neither has he seen that vase. But the sound of approaching footsteps has Naruto hurriedly find his way through an unknown door.

Naruto huffs and puffs from the adrenaline, and nearly screams when he hears a voice. He actually screams when sand pins him against the door. “Who are you? Are you here to hurt me?” asks a timid voice. From the literal shadows a kid with red hair that's about his age emerges.

“Um, no? The name’s Naruto by the way. What about you?” Stay calm. Stay calm. The mantra repeats in his head. Now that he can see him better in the light and with more clear judgement, the most basic assessment that Naruto can make is that the kid looks scared and sleepy. The dark circles around his eyes are even more prominent than when Itachi has to do an overnight mission. 

“Gaara. Are you sure that you’re not here to hurt me?”

“No, I’m not! Why do you keep asking that anyways? And can you let me go, please.”

“Because Yashamaru tried to hurt me. He said he loved me, but he still tried to kill me.”

“Well, Gaara,” Naruto pleads. The sand’s grip is getting tighter around his body. “I was playing hide-n-seek, and I accidentally came in here. I promise! I was playing with my brothers and Temari and Kankuro.”

At the mention of his siblings, Gaara finally releases his sand causing Naruto to gasp in air. Gaara looks to the ground, and mutters,“Temari-nee-san? Kankuro-nii-san?”

His renewed breathing helps Naruto realize just what Gaara told him. “If Yashamaru tried to kill you, then he didn’t really love you. I love my brother, Sasuke, and hurts me sometimes, but that’s only because we spar together. We don’t ever try to kill each other.”

Gaara looks up solemnly, and touches the kanji on his forehead. “What is love?”

Naruto squints his eyes, and puts his finger under his chin. “Well, love is when people like each other a lot. I love my brothers, my mom, and my dad. I love my nii-san because he helps me train; I love Sasuke because… well, I just love him; I love my mom because she makes the best food, but still buys me ramen when I’m really sad; I love my dad because he always listens when I tell him about my friends even though he’s really busy because he’s very important in my village. My parents love each other a lot too, but that’s a different kind of love.”

“Can I… love? Am I loved?” Gaara hesitantly asks. He looks so unsure of himself. So lost in his life. 

“Of course you can love. Do you have any family? That’s a good place to start.” Naruto smiles with boyish eagerness, looking so pleased with himself. Gaara is mesmerised by the beacon of light that radiates from the blonde. His world filled with darkness, gets lightened up just a smidgen. 

“Yes, I have Father, Temari-nee-san, and Kankuro-nii-san.”

“Hey, hey,” Naruto says, basically bouncing on his heels, “You just called Temari ‘older sister’ and Kankuro ‘older brother’, right?” Gaara nods. “Then that makes you and me the same! We’re both the youngest son of a Kage. Anyways, you can start by loving them. When you see them again tell them that you love them. What are you doing in here anyways? You should play hide-n-seek with us!” 

Completely ignoring his proposition, Gaara asks Naruto another question. “Naruto, can we be… friends?”

Naruto simply looks confused. “We’re already friends, silly. But I know something even better. Do you wanna know? Do you wanna know?” Only after Gaara hesitantly nods his head does Naruto continue. “When we grow up, let’s be Kage together. I’ll be the Hokage, and you’ll be the Kazekage. We can be the Friendkages! The Kage’s are supposed to protect and love their village with all of their hearts, so we can both have the Will of Fire… er, I can have the Will of Fire, you can have the Will of Wind or something.”

Before Gaara can utter a response, the door swings open. “I believe that the proper terminology that Sand shinobi use is having the Wind’s Tenacity,” Itachi says matter-of-factly from the other side. A disgruntled Temari and Kankuro are also on the other side along with a bored Sasuke. The moment Temari and Kankuro notice Gaara, they immediately shrink back. When Gaara steps forward, they take another step back. 

Naruto is quick to defend his new friend. “Hey, what are you doing? He’s your brother, isn’t he?”

Kankuro lifts one of his arms and points at Gaara, “But… he… he—”

Sasuke looks up at Itachi for an explanation as to what’s happening, but all Itachi can do is shrug his shoulders. 

“So what? He really loves you guys. Believe it! So why don’t you guys love him back?” Naruto unyieldingly challenges. 

Kankuro is about to speak again, but Gaara beats him to the punch. He takes a big step forward, and nearly whispers, “I… I…. love you,” while he looks to the ground and fiddles with his thumbs.

Kankuro shuts his mouth, whatever he was about to say, dying in his throat. For a moment, Temari forgets all about the terror that is Shukaku. Forgets all about the Absolute Defense that has hurt even her on a couple of occasions. For a moment, Temari just has a younger brother. She sweeps the young boy into her arms, and whispers, “I love you too, Gaara”.  
\---  
On their way back to the Leaf, the Hokage’s entire family is pleased with the trip. Fugaku and Mikoto finally secured a full, two-way alliance with the Hidden Sand—something even Minato struggled with. Naruto really has to pat himself on the back. Not only did he win the game of tag, he made a new friend along the way! Itachi got a much needed break from his Anbu work; he’s a brilliant ninja, but he’s also still just barely a teenager. Sasuke got a cool looking puppet from Kankuro—that’s it. It may not be the most exciting thing, but he’s still amused by it nonetheless.   
\---  
The sun has already set, but Rasa is still in his office, finishing up some work. The Fifth Hokage is much tougher than the Third, that’s for sure. Negotiation wise, the Third was a twig that swayed in the wind: He went through the path of least resistance. The Fifth was an unyielding mountain: He stood his ground. Rasa tried and tried to finagle a lopsided deal for the Sand, but he just couldn’t. Whatever. The alliance was inevitable anyways—what he was really aiming for was getting the Suna Council off of his back.

The Third Great Shinobi War was an abysmal catastrophe for everybody involved. The Council has been mounting pressure to get Rasa replaced and start a new post-war era. The Leaf, Cloud, and Mist have already named new Kage to lead the new era, and the Stone has been led by Ohnoki since basically time immemorial, so it’s not a surprise that he still has the top job in the Stone. But Rasa is younger and more susceptible to getting outmaneuvered by elder councilmen. 

So, Rasa takes a moment to look at the photo in his hand. Himself and the Hokage, wearing their respective Kage hats, are shaking hands and looking at the camera; except, Mikoto, Temari, and Kankuro are flanking Fugaku’s side, and Itachi, Sasuke, and Naruto are flanking his own side. If she were alive, Karura would be next to Fugaku, and Mikoto would be next to Rasa, but sadly, that is not the case. Not even Gaara is present in the photo-op; however, Rasa has long stopped seeing him as his son, and started seeing him as the village's ultimate weapon. Hopefully this imperfect photo and an official Leaf-Sand Alliance will finally show the Council of doddering old men that he is perfectly capable of navigating a post-war Shinobi World, something he’s already been doing perfectly for the past seven years or so.

A knock at the door makes him instantly annoyed, but he yells, “Come in!” anyways. He expects to see one of his officials, but the little, red-haired boy that comes in is a surprise. He’s too shocked and sleep-deprived to say anything, so much so, that Gaara has enough time to walk up to him. 

Wordlessly, Gaara wraps his arms around Rasa. It’s a little awkward since Rasa’s still sitting, and Gaara isn’t exactly tall, but Rasa gets the intention of what’s happening. Gaara whispers, “I love you, Father.” 

It’s the first time Rasa has heard the words come from Gaara’s mouth directly. Yashamaru would report to him about how Gaara would tell him that he loved him, but Rasa used to pay it no heed. His perfect vessel for the great Shukaku didn’t need to know of a concept called love. Perhaps it’s because he just went down memory lane, but this boy before him isn’t the vessel. It’s his son. His own blood. The living legacy of Karura. So, Rasa sets his hand atop Gaara’s head, and returns the sentiment. “I love you too, Gaara.”


	14. Pervy Sage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's me, the king of inconsistency. but, really though, for anyone that cares, that two week or so break between ch. 11 and 12 shouldn't happen again. that was the just result of a mix of me being unmotivated and stressing about something else. I'll try to keep updates within at least seven days of each other. Thanks for reading, you da best!

Winter has ended and with the melting snow, spring arrives with blooming flowers. Jiraiya trudges his way through the Land of Fire’s grand forest, making his way home for the first time in nearly seven years. Call it divine inspiration or whatever, but Jiraiya has finally found it in himself to return to the Leaf, just in time for the leaves to return to the trees. Jiraiya’s mood is currently unkillable: He just spent a rather fun night in a hot spring, and nothing can stop him now.

Clad in his green kimono, red haori, horned forehead protector, and wooden sandals, Jiraiya makes his way through the village gates, each step clanking with the sound of wood hitting the ground. The first thing that catches his eye is Fugaku’s head next to Minato’s on Hokage Mountain. Jiraiya has it in himself to be a little smug, and it’s rightly so. He himself was offered the Hokage hat numerous times by Sandaime (which he humbly refused each and every time), Minato became Yondaime, and Fugaku became Godaime. Disregarding the kunoichi on his team that he felt absolutely hated his guts, he went three for three, unlike Orochimaru or Tsunade who have yet to have the pleasure of teaching a future Hokage. 

Before he makes his way to do some important visits, Jiraiya sees it fit to check out some of the hot springs. More specifically, the hot springs that have a women's bathhouse attached. Some may call him unscrupulous. Others may call him insatiable. But he calls himself a researcher. One cannot properly describe forms and figures that they have not seen before after all. And Jiraiya is a man of success. His _Icha Icha_ series is his magnum opus. He cannot and shall not disappoint his readers with naive descriptions in his great masterpiece of a book. 

So he squats down to be at eye level with the hotties, and he aims his eye through one of the partings in the bamboo fence. He doesn’t even notice how his mouth opens with a little drool spilling out. He takes mental notice, not even wasting a moment to look down at his notebook just in case he misses something important. 

One of the women is just about to get up when he hears a voice behind him, and he cringes, internally and externally. “Whatchya doing, mister?” asks an innocent voice. 

Apparently the proximity is close enough for the women to hear because they all scream, get up while covering themselves, and hurry back to the locker room. All Jiraiya can do is sigh. He doesn’t even bother turning around when he answers, keeping his eye peered through the fence, hoping they return. He responds, “I’m doing research, kid. Now run along now.” He even waves his hand in a shooing motion behind him, hoping the kid complies. 

Now another voice pipes up from behind him. Great. “Isn’t research reading through books? You’re just ogling at women. Who are you anyways?” asks a more mature sounding voice; however, they still have the squeaky tone of a child much like the other kid. 

Jiraiya closes his eyes, funnily distorts his face, and jumps around in a kabuki pose. “I am a man that has no enemies in the North, South, East, or West. I am of the Legendary Sannin! With my great white lion’s mane, I am known as the Great Toad Sage of Mt. Myoboku, but you may call me Jiraiya-sama!” 

He opens his eyes, expecting to see two amused kids; however, the only sight that greets him are a blond and a raven-haired boy looking wholly disinterested in his antics. All the raven-haired boy does is raise his arm, points his finger at him, and says in a deadbeat manner, “Pervy Sage.” The blonde next to him cracks up, and the sight reminds him of something from his past. From a time long, long ago.  
\---  
Jiraiya was disgruntled. His former teacher just made him a jonin sensei because “he needed to learn to have a sense of responsibility”. Jiraiya always fell somewhat behind his fellow former squadmates in terms of responsibility, but that sentiment was hammered in even harder when Orochimaru was appointed Jonin Commander and Tsunade was named Director of the Hospital. Although, that didn’t mean that Jiraiya wanted the pity position of some lowly jonin sensei. Some brat genin would only hold him back in missions. Contrary to appearances, Jiraiya is actually an expert in reconnaissance. 

Jiraiya quite literally dragged his feet to the designated meeting area. The dread that he felt weighed heavier than the dreaded flak jacket Orochimaru forced him to wear (the snake man always went on about appearances, appearances, appearances, but Jiraiya just wanted to be comfortable damn it). He finally made it to the Third Training Ground where he saw two boys talking among themselves. Great. Just great. One of his students is already late to their first meeting. 

Anyways, the blond boy of the two was wearing a tracksuit while the raven-haired boy was wearing traditional attire with the Uchiha crest on the back. Not only was one of his students late, another one was an Uchiha. Whatever. Jiraiya walked up to the two boys, posed in a kabuki stance and started his usual spiel, not really caring that one of his students missed it. “Hello, my students. From the isolated Mt. Myoboku which houses the great toads, I have come to guide you through this tumultuous thing called the Shinobi World. With my flowing white lion’s mane and status as one of the Legendary Sannin of the Leaf, you both should be grateful to have me, the great Jiraiya-sama, as your jonin sensei.” 

The blonde looked slightly amused, but the raven-haired boy glared at him with a death stare befitting of an Uchiha. The Uchiha raised his arm, pointed his finger at him, and asked in a deadbeat manner, “Aren’t you the perverted jonin?” The blonde at least had the decency to hide his smile behind his hand.  
\---  
When Jiraiya comes back to it though, all he sees is the backs of the two kids he was just talking to, the blonde looks to be animatedly talking to the raven-haired boy. On the back of the blonde’s jacket and raven-haired boy’s shirt, the Uchiha crest is displayed in all of its glory. Jiraiya just stands there alone for a moment before shaking away this too familiar encounter to go to his next destination. 

Jiraiya again trudges his way through the Hidden Leaf, basking in the spring air. He even picks up a basket of fried chicken because he’s always a good guest when visiting somebody. He waves at the little kids in passing as they point towards his wooden sandals; his already domineering height is complimented even more by his sandals. He’s literally a walking giant.

He makes it to the correct house and knocks on the front door. Orochimaru opens the door, sees that it’s him, and slams the door in his face. Jiraiya laughs to himself while he twists the door open and walks into Orochimaru’s house. Some may see it as rude, but to Jiraiya, it’s just how Orochimaru is and always has been. If Orochimaru hadn’t slammed the door in his face, Jiraiya would have pulled out kunai immediately. 

Jiraiya walks in to see Orochimaru settling himself on a rocking chair like an old man, unraveling a scroll. Orochimaru’s passion for sitting is exactly why he can enter Sage Mode so fast while Jiraiya struggles, and Tsunade just straight up can’t activate it. Instead of his usual green flak jacket and trench coat, Orochimaru is wearing a plain grey shirt that he usually saves for casual wear. Jiraiya sits on the very comfortable armchair he gifted Orochimaru once upon a time, and sets the bucket of chicken on the coffee table. Orochimaru looks at the bucket of chicken in disdain. 

“You haven’t returned to the village in nearly eight years, and the first thing you do is buy chicken and come bother me? Because, knowing you, of course you haven’t reported to the Hokage yet.”

“Tsk, I was planning to do that after catching up with you, Orochimaru. Besides this isn’t the first thing that I did. Did you know that there’s a blond Uchiha? I swear, those two kids had an uncanny resemblance to Minato and Fugaku. I could have sworn it was a genjutsu.”

Now Orochimaru looks at Jiraiya in disdain. “Are you an idiot or are you acting? Since you left the village, you wouldn’t know, but you probably just met Uchiha Sasuke—one of Fugaku’s biological sons—and Uzumaki Naruto—Minato’s biological son, and Fugaku’s adopted son.”

“Fugaku adopted Minato’s boy?” That comes as a shock to the toad sage. 

“Of course. What did you think happened to the boy? That he was just left to be raised in the streets? Not only is that boy the Fourth’s son, he’s also an Uzumaki and the Leaf’s only jinchuriki,” Orochimaru spits out like venom. But Jiraiya has spent years getting immunity to Orochimaru’s venom, so he is unaffected. 

Jiraiya doesn’t respond to that, instead opting to get up and walk to the kitchen to grab a plate of rice to go with his chicken. When he returns to the living room, Orochimaru is immersed in his reading, so Jiraiya takes a seat and starts eating his late afternoon lunch. The two sit in a companable silence while Jiraiya observes and remembers Orochimaru’s house. 

Orochimaru’s place hasn’t changed much in the years he’s been away. Books and scrolls clutter all of the bookshelves surrounding the living room. From what Jiraiya remembers, nearly all of the literature in Orochimaru’s possession are nonfiction works. Texts on jutsu, history, and strategy dominate the place Orochimaru calls home, but in one dingy corner sits a single work of fiction. In a back corner, hidden from view, sits Jiraiya’s debut novel, _Tales of a Gutsy Ninja_ , and Jiraiya knows this because it’s the only book Orochimaru accepted from him as a birthday gift. 

Other than the bookshelves, random items of intrigue clutter his dwelling, truly making it feel like some villain’s hideout. Jiraiya nudges the bucket of chicken just a little further from the suspicious vials also sitting on the coffee table. On a nearby shelf, a monkey’s paw and rabbit’s foot sit. Orochimaru’s place always gives him the heebie-jeebies. 

Orochimaru only has two photos in his entire home: one of Team Hiruzen, the other of Team Orochimaru. The two photos aren’t even visible from the living room (they sit on Orochimaru’s desk in his personal study), and Jiraiya only knows that because he’s one of very few living people who has been in Orochimaru’s study. The snake sage even went as far as asking Minato for help in securing his study with seals and barriers. Information on some truly heinous jutsu reside in that room. 

Eventually, Orochimaru methodically rolls up the scroll he was reading and gives Jiraiya a pointed look. “What are you doing here anyways? Don’t you have ‘research’ to be doing? And by that I mean peeping at women like some virgin, touch-starved teenager.” 

Jiraiya puts a hand over his heart in mock offense. “Are you implying that you don’t want me here? I thought we used to be teammates, Orochimaru. Speaking of teammates, Team Hiruzen should meet up sometime soon: I don’t know how much longer I can stay in the village. I was actually gathering intel you know.”

“Sure, I can help arrange that, but you do know that Tsunade is still out of the village, correct?”

“What? I thought she came back a couple of years back.”

“She only stayed for a couple of months before leaving again; her son did stay however. How are you a supposed master of gathering intel and not know these simple things?”

“Oh? Natsu-kun? Tell me, I was right about him, wasn’t I? He probably grew up to be such the playboy. I envy him. With his looks, he probably has girls hanging off of his arms every night.”

The snake sage laughs, more like cackles. “From what I’ve heard, he’s in a relationship with Hatake Kakashi. Minato’s former student. Minato’s former _male_ student.”

Jiraiya’s eyes widen. “Seriously? Does Tsunade know? Tsunade and Natsu are the last living Senju, and obviously Tsunade’s past the age of having any more kids…”

“No, I don’t believe that she knows yet. It should be rather interesting when she learns though. That woman quite literally has the power to move mountains when she puts down the booze. There’s not telling how she’ll react.”

“You’re telling me,” Jiraiya says, clutching his abdomen. Long ago, one of Tsunade’s monstrous punches broke many of his ribs when she caught him peeping. “Anyways, I really should be reporting to Fugaku. He’s already gone home for the day, has he not?”

Orochimaru checks a clock. “Yes, he should be home. Now go. Leave my presence.” Orochimaru picks up another book, and continues without looking up, “I’ve seen enough of you today to last the whole month.”

Jiraiya laughs, as he hauls his body out of his chair. “Your vivid personality is always a shining constant in my life. Never change, Orochimaru. Never change.” 

Jiraiya stomps his way out of the snake's den, leaving the bucket of chicken for Orochimaru. Jiraiya has a hunch that the moment he steps foot outside, Orochimaru will spring up to get a plate of rice to eat with his meal. Such a finicky man, the snake sage is. 

More walking, and Jiraiya makes his way to his former student’s house. When he gets close enough, he sees Itachi sweeping just outside the front door. “Hey, Itachi. You’ve really grown up haven’t you? Is your father home? I need to speak with him.”

Itachi looks up from his sweeping, and blushes slightly. “Oh. Hello, Jiraiya-sama. I think Father’s training with Sasuke, but you’re welcome to come in if you want.”

“That would be perfect. Thank you.”

Itachi starts leading the toad sage into his home, but has refused to make eye contact since he initially looked up at him. That’s odd, Itachi usually always looks people dead in the eye when talking. It’s actually a little unnerving for most. Jiraiya sits at the dining table when Itachi offers to make him tea, still avoiding eye contact.

When Itachi pours two cups and sits across from him, still not meeting his eyes, Jiraiya has to voice his concerns. “Are you okay, Itachi? You seem… odd today. Nothing too important I hope.” Itachi mutters something against his tea cup, something also very uncharacteristic of him. “You need to speak up, kid. My ears are only getting older.”

“I read one of your books, Jiraiya-sama.” Itachi blurts out.

“Oh? Which one? _Tales of a Gutsy Ninja?_ It wasn’t really popular when I first released it, but it was my debut I suppose.”

“No, not that one. The one you’re most famous for.” Itachi blushes an even deeper shade of crimson, and he rests his head on one of his hands, a telltale sign that he’s trying to hide it.

“My most famous one?” Jiraiya only needs a moment to think before bursting out in laughter. He slaps the table with his palm and says, “You, the ever stoic Itachi, read one of my _Icha Icha_ books? Oh, that’s comedy gold I say. Comedy gold!”

Itachi looks flustered and silently sips his tea when a familiar voice pipes up accusingly from behind Jiraiya. “Hey! What’s Pervy Sage doing here?” 

Itachi nearly spits out his tea, and Jiraiya swivels in his chair to look at the suspecting voice. Orochimaru is right. On a second look, the boy really is Minato’s son. Before Jiraiya can say anything, Itachi reprimands his brother, suddenly gaining some semblance of composure. “Naruto, you shouldn’t be calling people you haven't met before nicknames. Besides, ‘Pervy Sage’ is a really unsavory one, especially for somebody with Jiraiya’s standing in the village. Do you even know what ‘pervy’ means?”

“But it was Sasuke who called him ‘Pervy Sage’ first,” Naruto defends, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Naruto—”

But before Itachi can finish, Jiraiya interrupts him. “Now, now, Naruto is still just a boy, I can let it slide this time. How about this. Let’s start over. Hello, I’m Jiraiya, but you can call me Jiraiya-sama.”

Naruto takes Jiraiya’s outstretched hand. “Fine. I’m Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you…” a grin suddenly splits his face “…Pervy Sage.”

“NARUTO!” Mikoto, who just came back from her mission, roars from the dining room entrance. Naruto lets go of Jiraiya’s hand and runs further into the house, away from a chasing Mikoto. Jiraiya turns to Itachi and sets his arm on the dining room table. “So about the book… Did you like it at least?”

Itachi buries his burning face under his arms while Jiraiya laughs even harder, slapping his knee.  
\---  
Sasuke and Fugaku wordlessly walk to Uchiha lake. Sasuke was in his room, trying to understand a really difficult book Iruka assigned personally for him when Fugaku told him to meet him outside. Sasuke doesn’t really know what his dad wants, but from what Naruto told him, he’s probably going to be taught a new jutsu. 

The pair arrive at the dock when Fugaku starts his spiel. “Sasuke, what I’m going to teach you is the very foundation of all Uchiha jutsu. Watch carefully with your Sharingan because I’m only going to demonstrate once.” 

Fugaku signs numerous hand seals to the scrutiny of Sasuke, and says before sucking in his breath, “Katon: Fireball Jutsu.” He then spits out a large fireball that nearly covers the entire lake. Sasuke can just feel the intense heat baking his face. “Now you try it.”

Sasuke does everything that his father just did. He signs all the right seals, he says, “Katon: Fireball Jutsu,” he sucks in his breath, but when he spits out, a flame akin to one at the end of a matchstick is all that spews out of his mouth.

Fugaku sighs. “Just as I thought, you aren’t like Itachi… Perhaps it’s too early for you to be learning this jutsu.” As he walks off, Sasuke hears him mutter, “Even Naruto learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu fairly easily. I thought Sasuke was top of his class.”

Then… Sasuke is just on the dock alone. He will not cry. He will not cry. But he just can’t help a few tears rolling down his cheeks. His dad just walked off without even a backwards glance. So, alone this time, Sasuke tries the jutsu again: It’s just a small candle light. Again: It’s slightly bigger this time. Again: The flame is the size of his fist. After that, he physically has to stop. He can feel that his chakra’s nearly depleted. Suddenly, an old man with a pipe in his mouth and white robes Body Flickers to his side. Sasuke swears that he’s seen the man before, but he can’t place a name to his face. 

“That has to be one of the smallest Fireball Jutsus I’ve ever seen.” Sasuke pouts at the man’s assessment, but the old man just chuckles. “Here,” the old man says, pulling a piece of paper out from within his robes. “Channel your chakra through this. I have some suspicions, but I want to confirm it.”

Sasuke takes the piece of paper and channels a little bit of his chakra through it. The paper immediately wrinkles. “What—”

“You’ve learned about the five chakra natures, correct?” Sasuke nods his head. “Well, this paper is like a litmus test: It shows the natural affinity one has to a particular nature.”

“What does wrinkling mean?”

“Wrinkling, which is what happened to you, is the determinant for the lightning nature. As I suspected, you are one of few Uchiha who doesn’t have a natural affinity with fire, meaning that the Fireball Jutsu doesn’t come as naturally to you as it would to Itachi.” Sasuke nods his head in understanding as the old man continues. 

“Here, watch me with your Sharingan so that you can replicate the jutsu I’m about to do.” Sasuke nods again, and the old man signs the seals and says, “Raiton: Lightning Ball,” as a dozen or so lightning balls the size of his head appear over the lake. Sasuke looks at all of the balls of light in awe before the old man dissipates them. “Now, you try.”

Sasuke does the seals and says, “Raiton: Lightning Ball,” as six balls appear over the lake. Sasuke is ready for the old man to be disappointed like his father was because he couldn’t make as many balls as him, but the old man smiles all the same. 

“Look at that. You made five more than a typical kid your age can make; usually, a kid your age would only be able to make one, but you made six even after exhausting your chakra from the fireballs.”

“Thank you, Gramps. Who are you anyways? You really made a lot of lightning balls. I’m Uchiha Sasuke by the way,” Sasuke introduces himself as he bows slightly. 

“Who am I? I’m just some old man who happened to be passing through. You should head on home now, don’t want to be late to dinner.”

Sasuke nods his head, gives a quick wave of goodbye, and scampers back home, the feeling of having disappointed his father already alleviated because of the old man. So what if Itachi’s good at the fire style, and Naruto has his clones or whatever. Sasuke has his own thing: He has the lightning style. Now, of course Sasuke will still try to master the Fireball Jutsu because it is an Uchiha jutsu, but he already prefers the hum of his lightning balls.  
\---  
After meeting with Fugaku, Jiraiya leaves the Uchiha Head Family’s residence. He whistles to himself as he allows himself out of the door, satisfied with himself of having caught up with his last living former student. Nearly a dozen feet away from the front entrance, Jiraiya pauses both his walking and his humming. A raven-haired boy raises his arm, points his finger at him, and says in a deadbeat voice, “Oh. It’s Pervy Sage.” 

Jiraiya slaps a hand over his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait, I just realized that Minato and Fugaku are like ten years apart in age. When I first wrote the fact that they were teammates I think I rationalized it in my head by something like "oh, Naruto and Sasuke are the same age, so their parents must be the same age too" Obviously, I was wrong. I don't think it ultimately matters honestly, but I do recognize the minor plot hole. Oops.


	15. A New Home

Hiruzen, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya are sitting in the secluded corner of a bar, lightly drinking and catching up. Well, Jiraiya and Orochimaru are drinking. The two are downing their alcohol like they’re in competition with each other. Hiruzen is ever the responsible adult and is drinking mostly water: Drinking too much alcohol wouldn’t be doing any favors for his aging body.

After downing some sake, Jiraiya asks nobody in particular, “Where is Tsunade anyway? If she was here, our tab would be double of what it is now.” Neither Hiruzen nor Orochimaru can argue with that assessment. Even if they are considered legendary shinobi, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tsunade are infamous for being heavy drinkers and gamblers. Except, one was known for his blowout wins, and the other is known for her almost humiliating losses. 

“If what Shizune wrote to me was true, they’re hovering around the eastern coast. I don’t know if the slug woman knows it or not, but she’s actually being useful for once by being there. Her presence in the east is likely warding off the Blood Mist from doing anything too outlandish,” Orochimaru says while casually leaning back in his seat. Instead of wearing his flak jacket and trench coat or a simple grey shirt, Orochimaru is humoring his old teacher by wearing the haori he so graciously gifted him when he became a jonin over a full kimono. 

Hiruzen tsks at his protege before reprimanding him. “Give Tsunade more credit, Orochimaru. She has her… vices, but she still has the village’s best interests at heart.” Having taught them and known them for literal decades, Hiruzen knows that the Sannin’s constant banter and bickering hold no real malice. But since she’s not here to defend herself, it’s his duty as her former teacher to defend the slug princess in her place. 

Even though all three of them have their own lives, one of the things Hiruzen wants to see before he dies is all of his students together one last time. Call it arrogant, but Team Hiruzen may have been one of the strongest shinobi squads to ever touch the Leaf. Technically, according to some old documents, Team Hiruzen isn’t disbanded; despite that, the four of them haven’t worked together on a mission in literal decades. The three Sannin have even already led teams of their own. 

“If she had the village’s best interests at heart, then she would come back to the village and take back the position of Director of the Hospital. I swear the current Director is on the verge of death everytime I see him; her coming back will finally put him out of his misery. We can just send a useless oaf like Jiraiya near the eastern coast,” Orochimaru sneers. In actuality, Orochimaru has long looked for a suitable leadership position for Jiraiya. Jiraiya is quite the talented shinobi if not flirt. 

“Hey!” Jiraiya says, setting down his sake cup with a hiccup. “I can be just as useful in the village too! Like I can help train that Naruto kid. He’s not as smart as Minato, but he’s not stupid either; well, he’s a little stupid. I suspect he’ll grow up to be a rather fine shinobi though, especially under my guidance.”

Hiruzen pours himself another cup of sake and says sagely, “Perhaps you should wait until he’s older, Jiraiya. Let him grow up into his own ideal ninja, then guide him down an even brighter path.”

Orochimaru hums while swirling around expensive red wine in his glass and looking at the ceiling. “The Leaf generally hasn’t used our jinchuriki at full power for combat, but little Naruto-kun may be a different story. Since he’s so close to the Uchiha, he may be able to become the perfect jinchuuriki that Kushina was never able to become. If Naruto-kun learns senjutsu as well, then he really will be an excellent weapon for the Leaf.”

“Don’t talk about the kid like he’s some armament of war, Orochimaru. He’s still the son of not one, but two Hokage. He deserves the dignity of being his own person,” Jiraiya says, glaring at his former teammate. Jiraiya was always quite fond of Minato. The Fourth’s untimely death was why Jiraiya left the village on the pretense of “research” for so many years. 

“Pft, whatever you want to call him, his purpose will still remain the same. He. Is. A. Jinchuriki. I don’t believe in that prophetic bullshit you always spout, but Naruto-kun’s fate as the Leaf’s jinchuriki is already sealed. He has a duty to subordinate to his home village. Stop trying to be some saint, Jiraiya, being a sage should already be enough. Besides, compared to other jinchuriki, Naruto-kun’s already living a life of pleasure.” 

Even if what the snake sage says is true, it still stings slightly for Hiruzen. Naruto isn’t supposed to be a jinchuriki in the first place. If only Hiruzen was stronger, then the Nine-Tails’s attack could have been prevented. But alas, what’s in the past is stuck in the past. Wondering about “ifs” and “could have beens” are interesting thoughts to mull over before bed, but thinking too deeply about them is childish. There’s no way to change the past, but shaping the future is well within mortal hands. No matter what happens, he will help protect Naruto at all costs. 

Hiruzen downs another shot at the thought, as well as because his two former students before him start arguing over some pitiful little thing again. As is usual. 

“Umm, I hope I’m not interrupting something,” a voice comes from behind the two bickering, slightly tipsy Sannin. “But it’s really great seeing you again, Uncle Jiraiya. You too, Uncle Orochimaru, Lord Third.”

Jiraiya pivots in his seat to look at the new voice; it’s not one he recognizes. But judging from his use of “uncle”, his blond locks, and blue crystal earring, Jiraiya has a pretty good guess of who it is. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t little Natsu-kun. Look at you! You’re all grown up!” 

The Natsu in front of Jiraiya is not a boy like he’s used to, but a man. Instead of the little kid who always stood behind his mother, the imposing stature of a ninja stands before him. The last time Jiraiya saw Tsunade’s son was nearly a decade ago. Natsu was just a scrawny 12 year old that was learning how to be a ninja under his mother, but Jiraiya always thought that the kid could be quite the looker if he worked out or something. Apparently, the toad sage was right.

“Yeah, it’s been quite a few years hasn’t it. Last time you saw me, I wasn’t even a ninja yet, but now I’m a jonin. Time sure flies.”

“Yes, even with the challenge of having Tsunade as a mother, Natsu-kun really has grown up to be an exemplary medical ninja,” Orochimaru slightly slurs out. Natsu shakes his head at the description of his mother, but makes no move to disagree with Orochimaru’s assessment. Hiruzen rolls his eyes while Jiraiya swallows another cup of sake. Tsunade was tough on her son. She had him endure grueling training: reading through stacks of literature, honing his chakra precision, evading her powerful punches and kicks. Tsunade has lost so much in her life, she made sure that her own son would be strong enough so that he wouldn’t be added to the losses.

“You know, Natsu,” Hiruzen starts saying, leaning back in his seat with a glint in his eyes. An idea starts forming in his mind. “Maybe being a jonin sensei is somewhere in your future. Already at your age, I sense that your skills and experiences are already worthy enough to pass on to the next generation.” 

Jiraiya has heard that before from his former teacher. Except instead of “in the future”, it was “now”. And instead of “maybe”, it was a command. Natsu’s generation has it easy starting their adulthood in a time of peace, but it’s probably for the better. Jiraiya warns his basically nephew anyways, “Ignore him, Natsu-kun. I’m telling you that it’s a trap.”

Hiruzen raises an eyebrow delicately. “Even if it was a trap, it seemed to work in your favor, did it not? Not many people can boast about having taught two Hokage, much less being asked to be Hokage themselves.” Even Hiruzen has to admit that he was a tad tough on Jiraiya. While others had to apply to become a jonin sensei, as the Third Hokage, Hiruzen made it a direct order for Jiraiya to take up a genin squad. 

Natsu nervously laughs, looking between all three men at the table. Jiraiya is staring down his former teacher to little effect while Orochimaru pours himself another full cup of wine. It’s really a wonder that the three men sitting before him quite literally have the power to run the village to the ground if they really wanted. “Maybe I’ll consider it in the future. Right now is a little too soon.” 

The snake sage takes a sip of his wine and looks at Natsu directly in the eye. “Well, Natsu-kun, if you ever do consider it, your application will be accepted immediately. Kakashi’s application will be as well,” Orochimaru says with a wink. The snake sage is privy to many rumors in the Hidden Leaf. Well, rumors pertaining to ninja. He has no need to learn about some heartbroken teenage girl, he’s heard enough about that from when he and Jiraiya were teenagers. The toad sage used to always come to him and tell him about his unrequited love for Tsunade. Such a difficult time in his life, those were. 

Natsu lightly blushes while Jiraiya saves him the embarrassment of having to respond. “Oh yeah, a certain snake told me that you have a thing with Kakashi now. How’s that going?” 

“Umm, it’s going great, but we both do work full time, so we’re taking it kind of slow. I’m happy. He seems to be happy. We’re both happy,” Natsu says smiling lightly. It’s been a good couple of months. They even have keys to each other's apartments. 

“Actually, Natsu-kun,” Hiruzen starts, “I wanted to talk to you about something. You see, when the Root was dissolved, Orochimaru here took command of the adults under the name of ‘the Foundation’, and I took the kids to an orphanage and helped them look for new homes; however, there is still one child whom nobody wants to take in. Believe me, I’ve asked nearly everybody from the Sannin generation and Fugaku’s generation, so now I have to ask your generation. Out of everybody from your generation, I believe that you are the best candidate to ask first given your… orientation.” 

Jiraiya’s eyes shoot up, and Orochimaru sputters indignantly from the wine he was sipping. Jiraiya responds to Hiruzen in lieu of Natsu’s silence and gaping mouth. “Sarutobi-sensei, does adopting a kid sound like ‘taking it slow’ to you?! What the hell did you and Biwako-san do before you got married?!”

“Just this one time, I have to agree with Jiraiya. Natsu’s generation is far too young to be adopting, even in a time of peace. How old is the child anyways?”

“Seven,” Hiruzen says, setting his elbows on the table and putting his fingers together. “Her codename is Eri, but there are no records of her actual given name or family name. Nor are there any records of her birthday; all that’s for certain is that she was born around the time of the Nine-Tails attack and was taken in by Danzo. She's set to join the Academy next school year with the other second years at the request of the Orphanage Director.” 

Jiraiya and Orochimaru open their mouths again, but Natsu puts his hand up, grabbing all three of their attention. “Actually, I would like to meet her if that’s okay with you, Lord Third. If there’s a child out there in need, the least I can do is give her my consideration, right?”

“Perfect. Tomorrow meet me outside of Konoha Orphanage at nine AM sharp,” Hiruzen tells him, hiding his smirk behind his sake cup. Hiruzen isn’t Danzo by any means. After having his eyes opened, he realizes that he would never stoop to such low levels, even in the name of protecting the Leaf. But that doesn’t mean that he isn’t willing to nudge certain events into fruition. And by nudge, he means forcefully shove.

Jiraiya leans back in his chair, staring at Natsu’s retreating figure. He’s not ready to be a granduncle yet. Or whatever his title would be to his sister’s grandchild. Well, Tsunade is basically his sister. He doesn’t have a sister-complex or anything, but Tsunade’s lack of any romantic attraction to him is as clear as day. A true man knows when to give up, so if the condition for remaining close to Tsunade is to be her sibling instead of lover, then so be it. He’ll get over it, someday. 

Orochimaru’s only in his late-40s, he doesn’t want to be a “grand” anything in terms of family. Looking at Jiraiya, the oaf probably has the same thoughts about granduncle-hood as he does. The passage of time is truly one of the things that frighten Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin. And he had to endure training with the snakes of Ryuchi Cave in his youth. He physically shudders at the memory.  
\---  
Natsu arrives at Konoha Orphanage five minutes early. Ever since he started dating a certain Hatake, he’s started coming to appointments a tad early, probably in order to compensate for the grey-haired man’s chronic tardiness. Not wanting to give the kid any preemptive ideas, he’s wearing a black kimono with his light blue “slug” haori, instead of his flak jacket designating him as a ninja.

He’s crossing his arms, leaning against a nearby tree and has his foot propped up against its trunk when a girl with curly blue hair that looks to be no older than ten walks by him. He’s surprised when she starts talking to him, and more surprised by her words. “Who are you? You look like a fuckboy with that haircut.”

“Excuse me? That’s no way to talk to a stranger, one older than you no less.” 

She stares at the blue crystal earring dangling from his ear, his expensive looking clothing that hugs tightly around his body, and the arrogant way he’s propping his foot against the tree. “Sorry that was rude of me. I really should have said that you look like a male hooker.”

“Listen, kid—” 

“Natsu, I see that you’ve met Eri,” Hiruzen says, interrupting Natsu as he walks up to the two. The old man looks amused, his trusty pipe in his hand as he talks. 

Eri scrunches up her face. “This is the guy that you wanted to introduce me to. Sorry, but no thank you. I don’t want to live in a house with a guy that has women coming in and out of it like it’s some nail salon.” She learned that line from one of her older “siblings”. He’s gone now— adopted—but she still remembers him, even if he may not remember her. She remembers all of her “siblings”.

Hiruzen ignores her and faces Natsu. “As you can see, she has quite a vivid mouth for a seven year old. From what I’m told, she inherited it from the older kids at the Orphanage. Come on, let’s take this inside, you two.”

When Hiruzen turns towards the direction of the Orphanage, Eri looks to Natsu and sticks out her tongue at him. As an adult and jonin level ninja, Natsu doesn’t go so far as to stick out his tongue too, but he does suddenly jerk his head towards her, making his earring swing like a pendulum. She doesn’t even flinch. 

The Orphanage Director welcomes all three of them into her office. Hiruzen and Eri take their seats in the two chairs in front of the Director’s desk: Hiruzen sits all prim and proper while Eri sits cross legged. Natsu stands behind them, still crossing his arms over his chest; however, he has to uncross them when the Director hands him a sheet of paper and starts talking. “Natsu-sama, thank you for meeting with us here today. Lord Third, I thank you as well, as always. Natsu-sama, you have my sincere gratitude for going down this route, especially considering that Eri’s older.”

Eri has a concerned look on her face. “Wait, what the hell’s going on?”

The Director has a sad look on her face. “Eri, I know that it’s hard since you’ve been here nearly your entire life, but I can promise you that you’ll probably be happier with Natsu-sama. He’s decided to take you in for foster care for a week on a preemptive basis; even so, I do hope that it's permanent rather than temporary.”

Natsu’s eyes widen as he finally starts reading the paper in his hands. He looks over at Hiruzen, and the old man looks way too smug with himself sitting snugly in his chair. A chair that he seems way too familiar sitting in. 

“Wait, hold on, don’t I have a say in any of this?” Eri asks, straightening her back. She only looks between Hiruzen and the Director, promptly choosing to ignore Natsu. 

The Director sighs, and explains like she’s talking to some little child (which in her eyes, she is), “Technically yes, but from what I remember you saying, aren’t you sick of eating the food here? Don’t you want your own room? From what Lord Third told me, although he is young, Natsu-sama is quite well put together. It’s always hard for me to let one of my kids go, you know. But I sincerely think that it’s for the best. It’s only for a week anyways, if you truly don’t like living together, you’ll always be welcomed back.”

“If that’s what you think, Director,” Eri says, twisting in her seat to look at Natsu. She has learned to trust the director, but she still has her suspicions about this man. Sure, he’s dressed rather nicely, but appearances are easier to decorate than personality she has learned from interacting with numerous kids at the orphanage. The prettiest ones are usually the bitches while the most average and ugliest are usually the nicest. 

“Eri, let’s go and pick up your belongings and say bye to your friends while Natsu-sama signs the necessary papers.” Eri nods her head, and the two of them are out of the room.

Natsu immediately swerves on Hiruzen. “Aren’t there supposed to be home checks or background checks for this kind of thing?” He doesn’t remember anybody coming over to check his apartment. Hell, he doesn’t even remember agreeing to foster the kid in the first place! Why? Because he never _did_ agree in the first place. 

Hiruzen raises an eyebrow. “That’s the part that you’re worried about? You don’t care about the deceit or anything? Besides, I know you, Natsu. There’s nothing for me to check or confirm that I don’t already know. You have my full trust like you’re family. All of the Sannin do, so that obvious extends to you. By the way, if you don’t want to go through with it, I heavily advise that you don’t sign those papers.”

Natsu sighs. Sure, he never actually said that he’ll take her in, but that doesn’t exactly mean that he doesn’t want to. It is kind of sudden, but the spontaneous things are always the most interesting in life. He’s lived his life carefully. His mother trained him hard, but she still protected him all the same. Just this once, he decides to bite the bullet. He says nothing more to Hiruzen, picks up the pen sitting on the desk, and signs “Senju Natsu” on every line that requires it. At least his mom can finally get off his back about providing a coveted Senju heir.  
\---  
Natsu and Eri are walking side-by-side back to his apartment. When he came back to the Leaf, he decided to rent his own apartment since his mother’s house, the main Senju estate, feels way too big and way too empty. He doesn’t need to come home to a dozen empty rooms everyday. Who knows, there could be a ghost lurking about one of these days. His father was renowned for his Spirit Transformation after all.

“So, you’re not actually a hooker, are you?” Eri asks conspiratorially, at least having the courtesy of asking on an empty pathway. Everything that she currently owns is either being worn by her or inside a worn out backpack she’s wearing. Natsu hates spending money, but even he has the urge to buy her some new clothes or something. He just doesn’t want her to think that he’s pitying her. 

“No, I’m a ninja actually. By the way, are you excited to attend the Academy next school year? I heard that you’re enrolled for it.” 

“Hmm.”

“‘Hmm’ isn’t an answer. ‘Hmm’ is what you say when you’re thinking about something.”

“Smartass,” Natsu thinks he hears Eri mutter. 

The two of them make it to Natsu’s apartment and he opens the door. The extra pair of shoes at his front entrance should make him suspicious, but he doesn’t even notice the minute detail. He’s taking off his shoes and instructs Eri to do the same when he hears footsteps and somebody calling his name. 

To his utter horror, Kakashi—who is wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, with neither mask nor shirt on—rounds the corner picking at his nails and says, “Sorry, Natsu, I just came back from a mission and really needed a shower and your apartment was—”

He’s promptly cut off by a shriek, and Eri saying, “I knew it! You are a hooker!”

Kakashi looks up at them, completely mortified and immediately brings his hand up over to cover his mouth. His Sharingan is completely exposed too because he doesn’t have his hitai-ate on. “Who the hell is this?!” 

Kakashi feels so… bare right now. Not even his own father saw him without a mask when he took to wearing them. So having this random kid seeing him maskless almost feels like he’s going full-frontal. Which is absolutely, without a doubt something he intends to avoid being in front of a child. 

“This is Eri. Umm… a kid I’m now fostering.” Natsu at least has the decency to look embarrassed and a little bit sorry. 

“Well, Eri, why don’t you go and sit in the living room? Evidently, Natsu and I need to talk about something,” Kakashi says, walking off towards Natsu’s bedroom, pulling his towel higher above his hips.

Eri looks at Natsu expectantly. It was Natsu who signed the papers after all, not this random client of his. He nods his head for her to do as Kakashi told her, and she walks off to the living room, picking up a stethoscope on the coffee table. When the blond man walks off to follow the shirtless man, she may or may not test the device on herself, confirming that she does indeed have a heartbeat. 

When he walks into his bedroom, Kakashi is already dressed. He’s wearing the standard issue pants (the original owner of which has become a mystery), a sleeveless black undershirt, and his grey Anbu flak jacket. His Anbu mask sits atop of Natsu’s dresser. The part that surprises Natsu the most is that he still doesn’t have a black face mask over his mouth. For Kakashi, his face masks are akin to glasses for the visually impaired. It’s the thing that allows him to go out and face the world. 

Kakashi sits at the end of his bed with an eyebrow delicately raised. “Well?”

“Okay, so…” Natsu recounts everything that happened during the previous night and current day’s morning. From when he went out for drinks with some friends and started talking to Hiruzen, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya, to when he and Eri first walked into his apartment front door. 

Kakashi laughs when he finishes telling his tale. “I see. People always tend to underestimate Sandaime. He was a soft Hokage, but he does know how to get his way when he really wants to.”

“You’re not mad?”

“I mean, I’m a little annoyed: This is the kind of thing that we should have talked about first. But, no, I’m not mad. Who knows, maybe doing something as spontaneous as this could be good for you, you worrywart. It’s only for a week anyways, it’s not like you sold your soul to the devil.” 

“Thank you, really. Here, take off your flak jacket. You don’t want her thinking that you’re an assassin or something when we walk out.”

He takes off his jacket, puts on his hitai-ate and face mask, and the two men walk out to Natsu’s living room. They’re met with Eri sitting on the couch, twirling her hair around an index finger. Natsu starts with formal introductions, something that’s already long overdue. “My name’s Senju Natsu and this is Hatake Kakashi, my boyfriend.”

“Hello,” Kakashi says with a dead fish eye and wave. 

Eri’s eyes widen considerably. “Wait! You’re a freakin’ Senju? Like the same Senju as Senju Tsunade, the greatest kunoichi to ever live?” Tsunade is her idol. She’s heard stories from the older kids and the Director about her unwavering determination in the dog eat dog place that is the World of Shinobi. About the Slug Princess’s great feats of incredible strength and meticulous medical expertise. Eri often dreams that she can be at least half the kunoichi that the Slug Princess Tsunade is.

“Uhh, yes. Tsunade is my mother actually,” Natsu admits, rubbing the back of his neck. Eri is taken aback. She didn’t know that the Slug Princess had a son. One as old as Natsu no less. 

“Really? Can I meet her?” Eri asks eagerly.

“She’s actually not in the village currently. Sorry”

“Oh.”

“Well, if you done fangirling, come with me to the marketplace while Natsu tidies up the apartment. I need somebody to carry the groceries since I don’t want to do it,” Kakashi says, pulling out a little book out of his pocket. 

Natsu rolls his eyes at the book, but agrees with Kakashi anyways. “Yeah, why don’t you two go out for a bit. I need to set up the guest bedroom and clean up a little.”

With that, Eri follows the grey haired man out of the apartment. She notices the _interesting_ cover of the novel that he’s reading, but makes no comment about it. She’s still high off of the fantasy of meeting _the_ Tsunade.  
\---  
Itachi and Sasuke are at the marketplace picking up groceries. Sasuke feels like his arms are falling out of its sockets from having to carry a slab of meat the size of his head through the bustling bazaar. It really should have been the last place they stopped by, but Itachi noticed that the butcher just restocked and quickly went to pick out the most premier meat before other customers beat them to the chase.

“Nii-san, can you carry the meat? My arms are getting tired.”

Itachi looks back at him with an amused smile. “Sure, little brother. But then you’ll have to haggle the prices for the remaining groceries. Mother made sure to tell us not to go over budget, so make sure to really smooth talk the prices lower. The woman that sells tomatoes is notorious for never relenting, except to me of course.”

Sasuke grimaces. He would much rather carry the heavy meat than have to talk to people. If only Naruto came with them, then they would be able to take turns carrying the heavy meat. But their mom took Naruto to go clothes shopping. Again. Naruto seems to have a habit of constantly tearing his clothes. 

Itachi notices Kakashi from a distance away. His squad captain is reading an _Icha Icha_ book (Itachi internally scowls at a couple certain memories) and is being followed by a girl with curly light blue hair that looks to be Sasuke and Naruto’s age. Itachi leads Sasuke over to where Kakashi is.

Sasuke follows his brother and immediately avoids the girl who looks at him with a death stare. While Itachi is talking with the grey haired man, Sasuke decides to wander around just a little bit. Itachi notices of course, but he trusts Sasuke not to do anything overly stupid. If it was Naruto, of course he would make the blonde stay where he can see him. 

After some walking, Sasuke sees a familiar face. He’s about to say hi to his classmate, but he notices that he seems to be carrying double the weight of what Sasuke has to deal with carrying his slab of meat. Sai is obediently walking behind a woman with a rather large build, although the Akimichi family crest is nowhere to be seen on her person. Sasuke watches as Sai momentarily loses his footing, drops a hat and accidentally steps on it as he tries to right himself. 

The woman turns around furiously. She raises her right hand up over her head, looks around at all of the spectators watching the scene, and slowly lowers her hand down to grip Sai’s shoulder. Only he can feel the death grip she employs. When he checks later, he is sure to find a bruise against his pale, milky skin. She leans down to whisper in his ear, seemingly a gesture to console him after almost falling over. She whispers so quietly that only he and he alone can hear, “If you drop something else, no dinner for the rest of the fucking week. You hear me?”

Sai nods his head, and the two of them continue walking; Sai makes damn sure to walk as carefully as possible. Unbeknownst to either the woman or Sai, they face the scrutiny of a little raven-haired boy carrying a slab of meat and a pink-haired girl as the two of them walk away. They end up leaving the hat behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this chapter might feel a little OC heavy (Eri’s the last one btw). Sorry about that. I haven’t forgotten that this is still a Naruto and Sasuke fic, and that fact will be way more obvious when they finally become ninja. I’m just setting the scene and characters for when that time comes right now, so please bear with me. (Actually, let me know if you liked the world/character building of multiple characters, or prefer a focus on Naruto and Sasuke.) Thanks for reading!


	16. A Nice Day for Ramen

After coming back from clothes shopping with his mom, Naruto sits outside by the koi pond. In the back of his mind, he notices his mom open the front door and start talking to somebody, but most of his attention lies on the white and orange fish swimming around in circles and circles and circles in a never ending cycle. He has half the mind to go and feed them when he remembers his father’s warning about feeding his prized fish: “Only feed the fish when I’m with you.” He’s about to get up and go back to his room when he hears somebody clear their throat behind him. 

“Listen kid, I have to leave the village again, but I wanted to take you out for lunch before I go,” Jiraiya says when Naruto looks back at him. Naruto grins at the giant, white haired man. In his short return to the village, Jiraiya has eaten a couple of meals with the Uchiha Head family and has better acquainted himself with Fugaku’s children—Naruto in particular. 

Naruto jumps up from his criss cross position, a grin splitting his face. “Hehe, Pervy Sage. Where are you taking me?”

“Just some restaurant, kid. Don’t get too excited,” Jiraiya responds gruffly. “Come on, your mom already gave me the okay to take you.” 

They walk back into the house where Mikoto sends Naruto off with a kiss on the cheek and Jiraiya off with a shake of her head when he requests the same. After some meandering through the village, the two of them make it to a quaint little stall. A quaint little ramen stall to be exact.

Jiraiya swipes aside a banner and allows Naruto in before him. 

“Teuchi-san, one large serving of miso ramen with char siu please,” Jiraiya’s booming voice echoes as he comes into the stall after Naruto and sits next to him. “Naruto, order whatever you want.” 

As Naruto squints at the menu, Teuchi looks up from his prep work to greet his two customers—the stall is empty except for the three of them. “Jiraiya-sama! Coming right up! Wait, who is this?”

“This,” Jiraiya says, pointing at Naruto with his thumb, “is Uzumaki Naruto. He’s Minato and Kushina’s biological son, but he’s being raised by Fugaku and his wife.” 

Teuchi’s eyes glisten with recognition immediately. “Minato-san and Kushina-san, huh. I haven’t heard those names in years. Okay, Naruto, your first order is on the house!”

“Umm, I’ll have… what Pervy Sage is having!”

Teuchi cracks a miniscule grin at the nickname while Jiraiya buries his face in his hands from being called that in public. “Coming right up!”

When Teuchi places his bowl in front of Naruto, the blonde starts salivating immediately. The broth looks like liquid gold, the soft-boiled egg yolks are like gold nuggets snuggled in a cloud of white, and the pork slices are thin and tender enough to be torn apart with just his chopsticks. 

To Naruto’s left, Jiraiya is already slurping down his food, noodle strands inelegantly flapping against his chin, soup glistening on his lips. Naruto lifts up his spoon filled to the brim with soup and takes a timid sip. It tastes like magic. Pure, unadulterated magic. The saltiness is still coating his tongue as he lifts up some of the noodles with his chopsticks. He puts the noodles in his mouth and marvels at the texture; it feels nothing like the cupnoodles that he’s used to. 

Teuchi smirks to himself as he looks at Naruto’s face of absolute wonder. The boy looks like he’s sitting on cloud nine, and all he’s doing is eating some ramen! Teuchi thinks to himself, _With Minato-san’s looks and Kushina-san’s appetite, this boy is definitely their child_. He sits down on his stool behind the counter and says with his chin resting on his hand, “It tastes good, huh?”

“Yeah, the best! Why haven’t I been here before?” Naruto asks rhetorically. 

“Because Fugaku doesn’t know the glory of noodles,” Jiraiya replies, finally stopping his onslaught against his noodles. “That man always wants rice, rice, rice, and always has. It’s no wonder that he’s never taken you here before.”

Naruto thinks for a moment—from all of his memories, he has never seen his dad, Uchiha dad, indulge upon noodles once. Not once. Rice was always an option on the Uchiha dining table. While Naruto and Mikoto would appease their hunger with noodles, the remaining three Uchiha would hunker down on the rice, leaving no white grain behind.

Naruto is brought out of his reverie by a full-bellied laugh from the ramen master himself. Through wheezes of breath, Teuchi manages to say, “I still remember when you first brought Minato-san and Fugaku-san here, Jiraiya-sama. Fugaku-san took one look at the menu and only ordered one measly soft-boiled egg. The poor man looked like he was suffering while you and Minato-san stuffed yourselves!”

Jiraiya’s mouth falls into a lopsided grin as he stops eating for a moment to reflect on the memory. Team Jiraiya just got back from an absolutely grueling mission that turned out to be a huge success, so Jiraiya dragged his team to one of his favorite restaurants in town to celebrate. “That boy is absolutely stubborn in everything in life and always has been! I can’t believe that you still remember that, Teuchi-san.”

“Of course, that was when I first met Minato-san. I don’t usually openly say this, but Minato-san and Kushina-san were customers that I’m still very fond of to this day,” Teuchi says conspiratorially with a wink just for added measure. 

“You knew my mom too, Mr. Ramen Man?” Naruto queries as he stuffs a pork slice into his mouth, melting in his mouth the moment it hits his tongue. Just delectable. Absolutely delectable. 

“How would I not know her? I swear, she came in nearly twice a week for lunch. Sometimes I had to stock up specifically for her. Although, even she admitted that she loved instant noodles just as much as my ramen,” Teuchi says with a distant look on his face, brushing off the nickname. 

“Mom liked instant noodles too?!” Naruto says with a face of wonder at the revelation. Even if this Ichiraku place is love at first sight—or love at first taste rather—cupnoodles will forever hold a place in Naruto’s heart. Sometimes the noodles would be too firm when he impatiently eats it too soon without his mom’s permission, and other times they’re too soft when he waits too long because he kind of forgot about it, but that’s just part of the charm, isn’t it? Although, he will forever remember the first time an Ichiraku noodle hit his tongue.

Jiraiya scoffs at the comment. “More like she absolutely loved that stuff. Her home cooking was second to none, but she still ate instant noodles like somebody who couldn’t afford otherwise.”

Naruto smiles to himself at the thought—both internally and externally—while he finishes devouring his miso ramen. 

When he sees that the final noodle strand, pork slice, and drop of soup is safely in Naruto’s stomach, Jiraiya pivots in his seat towards him. Jiraiya pulls a toad-shaped wallet from his pocket and says while handing it over to Naruto, “Here, take this. There are three taboos for a shinobi: alcohol, women, and money. But since you’re not a shinobi yet and are too young for the first two, I’d say indulge in money while you can. By the way, lunch today is your treat.”

Naruto looks inside his new wallet while Jiraiya gets up and walks away, and his eyes widen as he counts the money inside. “Hey Pervy Sage, the money you gave me is the exact amount of the ramen!”

Jiraiya responds with a wave of his hand behind him, not even bothering to look back or respond. Teuchi is amused as he accepts half the coins from a disgruntled Naruto, but refuses to take the rest. He tells the blonde with a wink, “Your bowl was on the house, remember?”

“Thank you, Mr. Ramen Man! I’ll be back on another day!” Naruto promises, his mood already lighting up again at putting the coins back in his wallet, before running off to catch up with the toad sage. 

The moment Naruto leaves another couple comes in, drawing Teuchi’s attention. “Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen!” 

For the rest of the day, Teuchi reminisces about a certain redhead that used to plague his little restaurant. He has a feeling that a new blonde plague is about to befall upon him. He doesn’t even mind.  
\---  
“Well, Jiraiya-sama, we hope that you come back to the village soon!” Mikoto says cheerfully. She’s flanked by Itachi and Sasuke who just came back from shopping, and Naruto who just came back from lunch with the toad sage himself. 

Itachi and Sasuke politely wave, but Naruto walks up to Jiraiya before he fully turns around to walk away. “You’ll come back, right? We’ll have Ichiraku’s ramen again, right?” Naruto asks in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. 

“Yes, I’ll be back, kid. Promise,” Jiraiya says as he crouches down with his right pinky extended and a playful grin on his face. A matching grin grows on Naruto’s face as he hooks his pinky with Jiraiya’s. “Well then,” Jiraiya says, getting up from his crouching position. “I guess I’m off. Say bye to Fugaku for me!”

The family walks back into the house and do their own separate things until dinner: Mikoto goes to the kitchen to start cooking dinner, Itachi goes to his room to do some light reading, and Naruto and Sasuke work on some of their homework in Sasuke’s room.

When Fugaku comes back home from work, Mikoto calls the kids for dinner and soon enough, all five of them are seated around the table, eating a rice dish obviously. After some light conversation, Mikoto says, “Fugaku honey, why don’t you tell Naruto about the _thing_.” 

“Of course. Naruto, as the heir to the Uzumaki clan, you’ll start attending the Head of Noble Leaf Clan meetings with your mother and Itachi. Your first meeting will be tomorrow, so be prepared. Apparently, many of your classmates are starting to attend these meetings as well, but don’t forget that you are representing the Uzumaki clan and to an extent the Uchiha clan. I expect you to be on your best behavior,” Fugaku says pointedly. 

Since becoming Hokage, Mikoto has been attending these meetings as the Uchiha representative in his absence. Fugaku completely trusts his wife to make the best decisions for the clan even if she isn’t an Uchiha by blood—as does the rest of the clan. 

“Of course, Dad. You can count on me!” Naruto exclaims. He heard about the meeting from Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino. Shikamaru said that it was “a bother”, but he says that about everything, so in the ears of his classmates, the phrase has been somewhat diluted. Naruto thinks that it won’t be too bad. Maybe… hopefully. 

“Dad, what about me? Am I going to the meetings too?” Sasuke asks, unsure if he even wants to go to those supposedly stuffy meetings. At school, Ino and Hinata complained about the boringness of having to sit in a room of a bunch of adults talking about basically nothingness in their adolescent eyes for hours on end. Although, one was way more vocal about it than the other. 

Fugaku scrutinizes his middle child. “No. You're not an heir to any clan.” 

Mikoto puts on a happy-go-lucky smile, hoping Sasuke doesn’t notice the bluntness of his father’s words. “Don’t worry, Sasuke dear. Shisui will be coming over to watch you. You aren’t missing anything from the meeting anyways.”

Itachi mirrors his mother’s sentiment, saying, “Mother is right, Sasuke. The meeting is usually incredibly boring. You’re probably the lucky one out of us kids to not have to attend.” Itachi has been going to the meetings for as long as he can remember. He has some very distant memories of going with his father before he became Hokage, but mostly he remembers going with his mother. 

While he vaguely remembered his father being all stoic and serious during the meetings, his mother would quietly whisper things she noticed during the meeting in his ear, such as Nara Shikaku discreetly falling asleep or Akimichi Choza sneaking in an early dinner. His father would mask his face with seriousness while his mother would hide quiet snickers behind her hand. 

“Oh,” is all Sasuke says. He doesn’t even want to go anyways… is what he tells himself.


	17. A Dialogue and Discovery

“Yo Aunty Mikoto, Ramen Boy, Mini Itachi. What a wonderful Sunday it is to not have to sit in a boring meeting. Right, Mini Itachi?,” Shisui says as Itachi allows him inside the front entrance of the house. 

All Sasuke does is grunt in response, and Mikoto says, “Good afternoon as well, Shisui-kun. Well then, we’ll be off if you’re all set.”

Shisui smirks while saying, “Oh don’t worry, Aunty. Sasuke will be in good hands, promise.”

Mikoto, Itachi, and Naruto walk off away from the house while Shisui and Sasuke walk back into the main area of the Uchiha house. Shisui not-so-elegantly lies down on a set of cushions in the living room, listening to Sasuke rummage through the kitchen. Shisui’s had some reservations about babysitting Sasuke, but he could be watching over a worse kid he supposes. There are truly some annoying kids out there, and Sasuke is definitely not one of them. 

As Sasuke walks through the living room, to supposedly go to his room, with a plate of onigiri in hand, Shisui clears his throat, and says with offense in his voice and a hand on his chest, “You don’t want to hang out with me, Mini Itachi? I’m hurt. I go out of my way to clear my afternoon, all to be left alone in the Hokage’s living room.”

Sasuke takes a bite out of an onigiri and grunts. Shisui’s dramatics are nothing new to him; seven years of practice has desensitized him from Shisui’s eccentricity. Nonetheless, Sasuke gives in to Shisui’s implied request and sets his plate on the living room table, kneeling down in front of it to face Shisui. The teenager sits up from his lying position and takes an onigiri off of Sasuke’s plate. He scrutinizes it before taking a bite, and saying, “Bonito flakes?” He then leans forward, close to Sasuke’s ear and whispers, “You know, one time when we were younger, Itachi filled his onigiri with dango and sweet syrup. It was the nastiest shit I’ve ever tasted.” 

Sasuke delicately raises an eyebrow, but his eyes tell a more compelling story. His eyes brim with amusement at the new fact about his Anbu brother, something only a discerning eye such as Shisui’s can notice. Sasuke continues munching on his onigiri, ruminating on the fact, unfazed by Shisui’s penetrating gaze on him. The two of them sit in silence for a moment, just eating their afternoon snack, taking care not to get crumbs all over the living room in fear of having to face the wrath of a mad Mikoto. 

After they finish eating and Shisui has carefully washed the plate, the teen walks back to the living room, surprised that Sasuke is still silently brooding instead of retreating back to his room. Not wanting to scare the lion back into his den, Shisui precariously settles himself back onto a set of cushions, sitting criss cross applesauce with his hands neatly clasped together on his lap. 

“So… how’s school?” he asks in an attempt of creating conversation. Even he has to admit that it’s a tad awkward without Itachi as a mediator. 

Sasuke leans on the table, resting his cheek in his palm. “School is school,” Sasuke replies in his squeaky pre-puberty voice. He looks bored, almost lost in thought. His eyes are glazed over, not really looking at anything in particular. 

“Yeah, no shit,” Shisui mutters. He’ll never understand children. Oh, for the day when Naruto and Sasuke finally grow up, Shisui will have literal tears of joy obscuring his vision. “Anyways, Itachi’s been telling me how much you’ve improved. Care to show me at the training—”

“Shisui-nii-san, why are you a police officer?” Sasuke asks abruptly, sitting up from his laxed position. 

“What do you mean?”

“Why aren’t you in the Anbu like nii-san? He’s always told me and Naruto that you are just a good ninja as he is, if not better,” Sasuke says, leaning on the table to get closer to Shisui. He’s been thinking about it for quite some time, and now’s as good a time as any to ask. 

“Well, it’s great to know that he thinks so highly of me,” Shisui says smugly. “Anyways, I’m in the police because I want to be. It’s a personal choice.”

“Personal…” 

“Yeah, a personal one. Trust me, your dad tried to tempt me into the Anbu or whatever, but I wasn’t having any of it. Do you see how many missions Itachi goes on? Miss me with that shit.”

“You curse a lot when nii-san’s not around.”

“Yeah, and don’t tell him,” Shisui whispers conspiratorially with a wink.

“But wouldn’t it be better for the village if you were in the Anbu? Da… I mean Father always talks about how important the village’s protection is, but I never hear about you going on any important missions outside of the village,” Sasuke says. Itachi always praises Shisui’s ninja abilities, but Sasuke hasn’t heard of Shisui doing anything too spectacular for basically his entire life. Sasuke always trusts his older brother’s judgement… but he isn’t so sure about Shisui.

Shisui gets up from his comfortable spot on his cushions and kneels in front of the table directly across from Sasuke, scrutinizing the seven year old before him. His face shows a certain stoicism that he must have copied from Itachi, but his eyes reveal a brewing turmoil. Shisui’s easygoing, perpetual smile drops from his face, finally realizing the conversation as a serious one. 

In a serious voice, Shisui carefully asks, “This isn’t about me is it?”

Sasuke leans back from the table and crosses his hands over his chest. His lips are quivering, and his eyes are growing wetter and wetter. Sasuke attempts to pivot his face away from the teen, but that doesn’t hide the telltale sniffles coming from his nose. In a whisper that barely registers in Shisui’s ears, the words, “I don’t want to be an Uchiha,” spill from Sasuke’s lips. The atmosphere around them shifts. Tension weighs down on the both of them, threatening to suffocate them if Shisui doesn’t do anything about it. 

In a whisper of the same volume, Shisui says quietly, “But you are an Uchiha. If you’re not an Uchiha, then what are you?”

Sasuke looks up for a quick second to say, “I’m Sasuke.” And then he promptly brings his eyes back to the ground, not daring to meet Shisui’s challenging eye. 

“And I’m Shisui. _Uchiha_ Shisui. I don’t know what brought this on, but running from your birthright will only make you breathless for no reason.”

“I can run as far as I want!” Sasuke bursts out, shuffling to his feet. “Father doesn’t care anyways. Everything he says is always about Itachi or Naruto! I’ve mastered the Fireball Jutsu, and he didn’t even say anything. But when Naruto barely passes a test that I aced, Father tells him, ‘That’s my boy’. Whose boy am I?” Sasuke whispers the last part. Tears are streaking down his cheeks. 

Shisui waits for him to finish completely before responding. As an only child, Shisui’s never understood sibling rivalries apart from books, but this seems a little more than that. “Sasuke…” he starts, watching Sasuke react to him using his real name for once. “Your dad probably loves you just as much as Itachi and Naruto, but—”

“But what? No matter how hard I try, he just doesn’t care,” Sasuke says, kneeling back down against the table. To keep his hands busy, he starts fiddling with his thumbs in a thumb war against himself. His left thumb wins of course. 

“He probably does care, you know. He’s just not the most expressive person.”

Sasuke grunts before saying, “He’s expressive talking to other adults.”

Shisui scoffs. “That’s just a political front. It’s probably exhausting for him to have to do it. He’s the Hokage, Sasuke. It’s bad enough being a clan head, but he has the entire village looking up to him. And speaking of clan heads, you should be grateful that you’re not an heir. Uncle Hokage has certain expectations for Itachi and Naruto, but you can make him proud whichever way you want. What do I always tell you?”

Sasuke mutters something under his breath. “I can’t hear you,” Shisui says, cupping his hand around his ear. He actually did hear him, but he just wants to really drive the point. 

“Be your own person,” Sasuke mutters slightly louder and more clearly. 

“Exactly. Now, come on. Let’s go to the training grounds. Show me what you’ve got. We’ll see if you really mastered the Fireball Jutsu,” Shisui says with a grin, stretching his legs out before jumping up.

“I guess I can show you,” Sasuke reluctantly gives in.

The two of them make their way to the Uchiha training grounds; Shisui cracks jokes and tells Sasuke about the books he’s read recently. Sasuke just rolls his eyes, mentally preparing himself to not cry when Shisui inevitably kicks his ass while sparring.  
\---  
Mikoto is wearing a full, floral kimono with a handbag hanging from the nook of her arm, and she princess-waves to various passersby that recognize her and greet her. Itachi is politely walking with his hands behind his back, the Uchiha crest on the back of his high-collared shirt almost glimmering in the sunlight. Naruto is donning the Uzumaki crest on the back of a black jacket, a smile on his face masquerading his growing nervousness. 

Talking to people is his forte, but intellectual conversation is more of Sasuke’s thing than his, even if his barely-older-than-him brother hates the actual act of talking to strangers. Naruto really wishes that Sasuke came with them so that he wouldn’t have to suffer alone. 

When they reach the conference hall, Itachi opens the door and waves for Mikoto and Naruto to go in before him. Inside is a magnificent room with high windows and a long, mahogany conference table in the middle of it. The chairs surrounding the table all have a clan symbol draping over the backs of them. Sitting at the head of the table is an old man. An old man smoking a pipe and reading through some scrolls. 

“Lord Third! I wasn’t told that you would be returning to the meetings,” Mikoto says cheerfully, walking over to the old man. Itachi and Naruto trail closely behind her, Itachi knowing who he is and Naruto completely oblivious. 

“Mikoto-san, it truly has been a while, but I’ve finished up the last of what I needed to do and am available to head the meetings again. This is Itachi-kun and Naruto-kun, I take it?”

Mikoto so motherly brings her two kids in front of her and with a hand on each of their shoulders, formally introduces the both of them, “Yes, this is Itachi, I believe you’ve met before. And this is Naruto—Minato and Kushina’s biological son if you remember.” 

“Ah yes, I quite remember. I must admit, I was quite surprised when Fugaku insisted on filling the vacancy left by the Senjus so soon, but if Naruto can rebuild the Uzumaki clan, I am quite certain that they will make a fine addition to the village,” Hiruzen says sagely, his eyes crinkling to really examine the little blond boy. 

Itachi clears his throat and politely asks, “I was actually wondering, why did the Senju withdraw? Along with the Uchiha, the Senju are the other half of the village’s very founding clans.” 

Hiruzen looks away from the trio for a moment to puff out one last bit of smoke before setting his pipe aside. With a solemn look, he replies, “Sadly, unlike the flourishing Uchiha, the last generation of Senju seems to have already appeared. Due to circumstance, Tsunade and Natsu are the last two living Senju, but because Tsunade is already quite older, and Natsu’s sexual preference and personal wishes, it appears that the next generation will not be born. So, Natsu gave notice for the official withdrawal of the Senju clan from the Head of Noble Clan meetings a couple of weeks ago.” 

“It’s really quite unfortunate,” Mikoto says, gesturing for Itachi and Naruto to take their seats at the table. The two chairs on the long side of the conference table and to Hiruzen’s right have the Uchiha clan symbol largely draped over the back of it. To the right of those sits a singular chair with the Uzumaki symbol. Itachi sits on the Uchiha chair to the left, Naruto on the Uzumaki one, and Mikoto sits between her two sons while continuing the conversation. “The Senju and Uchiha have really been quite amicable… well during the Hidden Leaf era. The same can’t be said for the Warring States era.” 

“Yes, that is quite true,” Hiruzen says laughing. Suddenly, the door swings open again, and both generations of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio waltz into the room. 

Shikaku’s eyes positively glimmer when he spots Hiruzen sitting at the head of the table. “Lord Third, it really is wonderful for you to be leading the meetings again.” 

The six of them sit directly across from Itachi, Mikoto, and Naruto on the opposite long side of the table. Ino winks at Naruto, something Itachi sees with wide eyes, but Mikoto misses because she’s politely greeting the other adults. Shikamaru rests his head on his palm, an expression of genuine boredom already painting his face. Choji is listening in on what the adults are saying, but the words go in one ear and out the other. 

The room quickly fills up with some of the Leaf’s most important figures. Naruto sends each incoming person an easy-going smile, but Itachi only sneakily sends one of his rare smiles to Utano, whose hair brilliantly matches the mahogany table, who enters the room with her father and sits at the far end of the table. 

Since he isn’t well acquainted with the Hidden Leaf clan symbols yet, Naruto is surprised when Hinata’s dad sits to his direct right, and Hinata herself sits to her dad’s right. Naruto sees Hinata quickly glance at him, and he’s about to say something when he gets interrupted by Hiruzen clearing his throat. 

“I welcome you all to this meeting, and although it has been quite a few years, I truly am glad to be leading this gathering today. As many of you may have noticed, we have a new representative: Uzumaki Naruto representing the Uzumaki clan,” Hiruzen says with a gravelly, low voice that has many people leaning in to hear him. The room erupts in a respectful applause with Naruto basking in the attention. The applause abruptly cuts when Hiruzen continues talking. “He technically is his own representative, but I ask that we treat him as an heir under Mikoto-san’s care. We don’t want his brain prematurely imploding now.”

The last comment is followed by a few mirthful chuckles, allowing Hiruzen to drink some water before saying, “Now then, the first matter of business…” 

Naruto doesn’t know when, but some time in the middle of the meeting, his eyes drift close. He dreams of being in a locked room with liquid all the way up to his knees with a… menacing aura lurking somewhere in the darkness behind the bars in front of him. Just as he feels the aura shifting and hears ominous laughing, he’s physically shaken and called awake by a voice. 

He immediately flinches away from the hand touching his shoulder, his own right hand flying down to clasp over his stomach. He doesn’t know why he touches his stomach, but just something about his abdomen feels… off. Naruto vaguely remembers his dad taking him to Orochi… whatever his name is, and the snake man doing _something_ with his stomach. Afterwards, he asked about it, but all his dad said was something along the lines of don’t worry about it, or that it will be important when he’s older.

Naruto looks around him and realizes that people have gotten up from sitting at the conference table. Standing really close to his right is Hinata, a somewhat hurt look on her face that Naruto can obviously notice. Sitting in Hiashi’s old seat is Shikamaru while Shino leans against the back of his chair, the two of them seem to be making quiet conversation. Leaning against the back of Naruto’s chair is Ino, who is gossiping with Choji about who’s bought flowers recently. On the other side of the room, Itachi is leaning against a wall facing Utano, and Mikoto is debating with Hiashi over whose clan was more successful in the monthly report. 

“N-Naruto-kun, is your stomach okay?” Hinata asks, breaking him out of his stupor. After watching him sleep for nearly the entire meeting and having him flinch away like that, she’s really quite worried about him. She’s never seen him so twitchy before.

He crosses his arms over his chest in an attempt to get them away from his stomach and slaps a nice-guy smile covering his face as he replies, “Fine. I’m just fine.”

“Well, the m-meeting’s ended, but the adults usually stay to meet with each other one-on-one…”

“Say,” Naruto starts saying, his eyes darting around the room. “Do you think we can sneak out? Where does that door lead?” he asks, pointing at a door on the opposite wall of where everybody entered. 

“I don’t k-know.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody use that door before,” Choji says, breaking from his conversation with Ino. 

“We should check it out then, y’know? Everybody else seems busy anyways.”

“I absolutely agree with Naruto-kun!” Ino says, clapping her hands together. 

She and Choji start discreetly shuffling towards the direction of the door, weaving through talking adults discussing the most boring things. Naruto gets up too and grabs Hinata’s hand. “Come on, Hinata. Let’s go on an adventure!” 

Naruto and Hinata meet up with Ino and Choji in front of the unassuming door after some weaving of their own. The four of them look around to make sure there are no prying eyes before Nartuo raises his hand from his side to twist the door handle. Before he can even touch it, a man body-flickers to his side. Trying to be sneaky in a room full of elite ninja is no easy task after all. “For all the years that I’ve used this conference room, never once have I ever seen this door open.”

Ino jumps at the sudden appearance of the old man. “Lord Third! I… we were just looking at it. Nothing suspicious at all is going on.” The other three kids nod their heads in agreement. Hinata grabs onto one of Naruto’s sleeves and cowers behind him.

Hiruzen chuckles. “Nonsense. The curiosity of the youth is a wondrous thing. I even have to admit that I’m a little curious myself, although all previous attempts of opening the door have failed. Go ahead, Naruto-kun. Give it a try.”

Naruto again raises his hand from his side to twist the door handle, only this time, he actually touches it. The moment his hand touches the knob, he feels a little bit of his chakra get sucked out of him like he just performed a jutsu. Hiruzen’s eyes widen considerably when Naruto actually starts twisting open the door knob. Naruto ever so carefully pushes the door open, beckoning the other four to follow him with his other hand. 

Stepping through the threshold, Hiruzen mutters, “My goodness.” The five of them barely fit inside because it’s more so of a storage closet rather than another whole room entirely. Lining the walls are shelves, each of them precariously housing scrolls and various other objects alike. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Naruto reach out to grab a scroll slightly sticking out. “Naruto-kun, don’t—”

But it’s too late. Naruto grabs the scroll, and again, he feels a little bit of chakra being sucked out of him. A seal keeping the scroll tightly wrapped up disintegrates into nothing. Almost as if it’s his calling, Naruto unravels it: Hinata looking over one shoulder, and Hiruzen over the other. 

_Inheritors’s blood_  
_We welcome you to this room,_  
_Uzumaki’s pride_

“What does this mean?” Naruto asks, scratching his head. Hiruzen looks at the back of the door that he closed when he walked in: The Uzumaki swirl is etched on it. Choji and Ino are stumbling about the rest of the closet, looking at all of the items of intrigue, but not daring to touch anything. 

Ignoring Naruto’s question, Hiruzen clears his throat and says, “Uzumaki Naruto. Hyuga Hinata. Akimichi Choji. Yamanaka Ino. None of you are to tell anybody about what is in this room. Is that clear?” 

Luckily, he’s met with various noises and gestures of affirmation, apparently they too can feel the absolute intensity of this mere unassuming closet. Hiruzen takes one last look around the room and directs Naruto to put the scroll back where he found it. After discreetly making sure each of the kids exit the room and aren’t noticed by anybody, Hiruzen exits as well, feeling a soft hum of chakra behind him as he clicks the door closed behind him. He only glances back one weary look at the door as he promptly walks away to make conversation with Aburame Shibi. The Hidden Eddy Village was destroyed for a reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly feel like I fumbled the ball with this fic: It’s kind of an incoherent mess. After a couple more chapters of tying up loose ends (I’m looking at you, Sai), I'm going to hit the soft reset button, and start a sequel fic when Naruto’s class becomes genin. It will technically be a direct sequel, but I’ll write it stand-alone as much as possible—I really don’t want people reading this fic. I will infinitely put more care into things like verbal tics (and dropping honorifics all together 'cause I’m ‘Murican and feel like I can never get them right) and just storytelling in general (I don’t have a beta or anything, but I’ll try my best). With this fic, I feel like I more so set the foundation of a story I want to tell rather than actually telling the story; for example, introducing the OC’s and setting up a Konoha without an Uchiha massacre. 
> 
> Naruto and Sasuke will finally be the protagonists they deserve to be without me having to question: Would a seven year old really do this? Basically, the sequel will be what “Like Brothers” was supposed to be, lol. This fic has really taught me a lot, and if you happen to have enjoyed it… well, thanks for enjoying it, and I hope you read/enjoy the sequel!


	18. A Summer Day Like No Other

The scorching rays of the summer sun radiantly shine down upon Konoha. In his black, high collared shirt, Itachi makes his way to the Ninja Academy to check if his student, Kitaro, is finished with his entrance exam yet. He hooks an index finger around the collar of his shirt and pulls in order to try to unstick the front of his shirt away from his sweaty abdomen. It’s days like these that he can really go for some ice cream. 

Waiting at the front of the school, he sees Utano standing against a wall with an open parasol in her hands. Her easy-going smile that seems to be permanently etched on her face is as radiant as the sun. Her auburn hair is casually swept over her right shoulder like cascading waves tumbling down a waterfall of dark red. With a perceptive eye, Itachi smiles to himself with a small quirk of his lips when he sees the bullhorn earrings hanging from her ears. When she sees him approaching, she greets him cheerfully, “G’afternoon, Itach’.” 

“Good afternoon, Utano. Is Kitaro not done yet?”

“They started a little late this mornin’, so he won’t be out for another couple of hours. Looks like we have a couple of extra hours on our hands.”

“I was actually just thinking of ice cream,” Itachi says, already salivating at the thought. “Care to join me?” 

“It would be my pleasure.”

The two of them weave their way through the crowded streets of Konoha in search of an ice cream shop that isn’t filled to the brim with children on summer break. After finally entering an ice cream shop with no line, Itachi orders a decadent, chocolate flavor in a cone while Utano gets a bowl of a mild, green tea ice cream.

They sit at a table outside, soaking in the sun and each others’ company. Itachi’s just got back from a mission and can feel his muscles aching, begging for a hot bath and massage. But he promised the two Makino siblings that he would be there to see the results with them and here he is. 

“You know,” Utano says. “When I was doin’ my rounds yesterday, I swear that this guy kept on followin’ me. Four right turns, and he was still trailin’.”

Itachi’s hand stops midway to his mouth as he looks at her incredulously. Dozens upon dozens of thoughts and speculation runs through his mind in an instant. He can feel his grip on his cone tighten nearly to the point of breaking it. “What? Did he do anything to you? Did you call the police?”

Utano sucks on her spoon while looking up at the sky before replying. “It’s no big deal really. And no, he didn’t do anythin’. Usually, those kinds of guys trail mail couriers in order to steal the packages we leave at doorsteps. I made sure to personally deliver every letter and package to the very hands of their recipients. When I finished my round, he just vanished into thin air.” 

“Well that’s good then. I’m glad you’re alright, but really, please call for help if it happens again.”

Itachi could never imagine getting trailed and not doing anything about it. A single suspicious glance in his direction instantly makes his hand twitch for a kunai. He truly admires Utano’s dauntlessness. But that just makes him worry for her all the more. 

When he comes back to reality, he sees Utano scrutinizing him while still sucking on her wooden spoon. “You worry too much, Itach’. Loosen up a little.”

He’s about to reply, but a drip of melted, chocolate ice cream drips onto his hand. He hurriedly scrounges up a napkin to clean up the decadent mess coating his right hand. Curse the damn sun! Making him waste his delightful treat _and_ making his hand sticky. He hears light laughing before he sees the water bottle and empty bowl being handed to him by Utano. Itachi deposits the rest of his cone and ice cream into Utano’s empty bowl and dabs his hand with a wet napkin. 

With annoyance still in his system, he picks up the bowl and starts eating his melted chocolate goop with the new wooden spoon Utano gave him. 

“Umm,” Utano starts, “how’s Sasuke by the way? He seems a little… different? I don’t know how to describe it.”

“You noticed it too?” 

Over the last couple of weeks, Itachi’s noticed that Sasuke’s become almost… colder. He was never talkative in the first place, but he’s been going deeper into his shell recently. Especially in regards to their father. Itachi swiveled his head with whiplash when he heard Sasuke refer to their father as “Father” instead of “Dad”. He still calls their mother, “Mom” though.

Utano nods her head at him. “Little brothers are just so finicky aren’t they? I can just never understand them. But as long as they’re happy, right?”

Happy. What even is “happy”? Itachi has felt content before. He’s felt gleeful during certain moments. But happiness? Is he himself even happy?

“I know what you mean,” Itachi says. “Sasuke—” 

Speak of the devil, and he shall come. The words die in his throat as he stares across the street with a gaping mouth. Utano follows his gaze and says, “Oh my,” while bringing up a hand over her mouth. 

Across the street, Shisui and one of his uncles is corralling a group of kids towards the police station. Itachi notices Sasuke and Naruto in the group immediately but isn’t quite as familiar with the other three, although he does know that they are friends of his brothers. He suspects that the girl with blond hair is the Yamanaka heir but isn’t certain. The names of the pink-haired girl and pale kid with short, black hair escapes his mind entirely. 

Itachi meets Shisui’s eyes even from quite the distance. Shisui’s eyes widen ever so slightly before using his head to subtly point in front of him. Itachi directs his gaze accordingly, finding a rather larger man and woman, both in handcuffs and police custody. 

Looking back at the group of kids one last time before they leave his field of vision, Itachi sees the sneer on Sasuke’s face as he looks toward the handcuffed couple. Naruto has a look of disdain on his face too, but it’s not as manifested as Sasuke’s. The pink-haired girl is patting the pale boy on the back, and the blond girl’s trailing slightly behind the four of them, sending one last glance at the pale boy before the entourage leaves Itachi’s sight. 

“Do you reckon we ought to follow them?” Utano asks, already clearing their small table.

Not trusting his words, Itachi nods his head, looking for a nearby trash can to throw away his completely melted ice cream. What a waste.

\---

Sasuke is picking at his shorts, absentmindedly listening to Naruto, Sakura, and Ino talk as the four of them are strolling around the village. They have no destination and have no purpose as they walk; the story of his life. Stopping in front of a boutique window that catches the girls’ eyes, Sasuke directs his attention to people watching as Sakura and Ino coo over a blouse on display, and Naruto scratches his head at the tall heels a mannequin is wearing. 

The streets are packed like sardines. Gross. Sasuke’s never particularly enjoyed summer. Sure, it’s the season that he was born in, but he has zero fondness for the long, hot days that encapsulate the months. He’s about to follow the three others walking off when he spots a familiar face in the corner of his eye. His eyes widen as he immediately goes to grab the back of Naruto’s shirt, which also captures the attention of Ino and Sakura. 

“Follow me,” Sasuke whispers. 

Three heads nod, and Sasuke stalks off to trail a certain pale boy and a rather larger woman. 

When Sasuke holds a hand out and ducks into an alleyway because the duo that they’re trailing went inside a shop, Naruto speaks up. “What the heck, Sasuke? What are we even doing? Why are we following Sai and… whoever that is?!”

“You’ll understand later. Just trust me, okay?” Sasuke says. He can’t say anything without proof. And he’s determined to get proof all right. 

Ino looks just as confused as Naruto, but Sakura is gnawing at her bottom lip. Sasuke scrutinizes her face, and the moment they make eye contact, he knows that she knows. Well, that certainly makes it easier. 

The moment he squints his eyes even just a little, Sakura says, “I trust Sasuke. Let’s trust Sasuke, alright?”

Naruto and Ino quietly nod their approval, albeit Ino more sceptically, and the four of them continue trailing when Sai and the woman exit the shop that they were in. Just like last time, Sai is carrying all of the bags like some pack mule. Passerbys show signs of noticing, but nobody says anything. 

Naruto and Ino seem more and more concerned as time goes on. With every shop entered, Sai’s load gets heavier and heavier, and Sasuke’s mood gets darker and darker. By the time they enter the residential district, Sai’s knees buckle with every step, the woman not even bothering to glance behind her. 

Sai and the woman eventually enter a house, so the party of four convene in order to sort out their next action. 

“We should stop. I think we’ve done enough spying,” Ino says, but she doesn’t even seem convinced by her own words. 

“I don’t think we should!” Naruto exclaims. “The woman didn’t even look like she noticed him with her, y’know. Sai never talks about his family, so something might be up.” 

“Well, what are we supposed to do then?” Sakura asks nobody in particular. She seems distraught, and Sasuke can’t blame her. 

Three heads look his way, and he feels his mouth go dry. Why are they looking at him? Naruto, the natural leader, is right there! The three of them stare at him for a second before Naruto finally says, “We should stay! Come on, something could already be happening, y’know.”

The two girls slowly nod their heads at him, but Sakura turns to Sasuke again. “Do you think we should stay, Sasuke?”

The two blonds look at him yet again. Naruto’s electric blue eyes stare into his very soul when they make eye contact. Sasuke has an entire conversation with his brother in the short time that they lock eyes. 

“We should stay,” Sasuke says, finally finding his voice again. He wanted to stay all along, but he felt mute before looking into Naruto’s eyes. Of course he wants to help his friend if he’s in trouble. Sasuke still remembers the time they played on the swingset on the first day of school. That was already a whole school year ago. A whole school year of Sai passing him drawings with a smile when they had individual work time. A whole school year of Sasuke helping him understand the assigned reading when he got confused. 

The four of them, who have been huddled in the street corner, turn towards the direction of the house that Sai and the woman went into. Crouching, they duck into the bushes in front of a large window, trying to channel all of the reconnaissance lessons Iruka-sensei taught them. All four of them pop their heads up to peak into the window, trying not to be seen. 

Inside, they see the woman sitting on an armchair, knitting something. A man of similar build to her is sitting in another armchair reading a newspaper of some sort. Sasuke frowns when he realizes nothing is happening. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding after all. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees that Naruto’s about to say something, but Sasuke puts a finger up when he sees the woman’s mouth moving. Activating his Sharingan, he starts reading her lips. 

… _you think the fucking kid is done yet? I’m fucking starving from all that shopping_ …, Sasuke makes out before his Sharingan gives out from strain. His frown deepens even more than before. Both because of what he heard, and the only short duration that he can activate his Sharingan for. He really needs to ask his nii-san to train him even harder. 

At Naruto’s raised eyebrow and Sakura’s tap on his shoulder, Sasuke simply mutters, “I don’t like the look of this.” 

Ino’s about to say something, but she’s interrupted when Sai makes his appearance into the living room. Sai walks in carrying a tray with two bowls on it. Sasuke hears Naruto make a noise of confusement but doesn’t do anything about it because Sakura’s hand is already sufficiently covering the blonde’s mouth. 

Back in the living room, Sai hands one bowl to the woman and the other to the man. The woman lifts the spoon to her mouth and grossly smacks her lips for a moment. She looks at the bowl, then looks at Sai, who’s busy looking at the floor. As fast as lightning, the woman grabs Sai’s wrist and dunks his hand into her bowl. From the look on his face, Sasuke can make out that it definitely hurts, but Sai’s lips remain stiff. 

Now, Ino and Sakura both have to put their hands over their mouths to restrain their gasps while Naruto looks like he’s about to jump through the window. Sasuke puts a hand out in front of his brother, but he too is seeing red. It’s taking every iota of his body to not jump through the window and save his friend from his obvious pain. 

In a voice loud enough for the four kids outside to hear, the woman yells, “You fucking useless kid! Even after all this time, you still can’t make chicken soup right! At least that other kid was actually useful. Too bad he died and only left trash like you.” 

The man takes a sip of the soup and literally spits it onto Sai’s face. Sai bows his head, takes back the bowls, and retreats back from where he came, which is presumably the kitchen. 

The four of them outside have no need to deliberate this time. All four of them crouch against the walls of the house towards the direction that they saw Sai go through. Finally reaching the correct window, Sasuke sees Sai running water over his victimized hand, tears streaming down his face. Sasuke taps on the window, and when Sai looks up, Sasuke points to its handle and mouths, “Open it.” 

“Wha—” Sai says after he slides the window open.

Naruto jerks his head to the direction of outside. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

“I… I can’t,” Sai insists. He nervously looks over his left shoulder in the direction of the living room. 

“Yes you can,” Sasuke says, holding out his hand for Sai. 

Sai’s eyes flick between all four of their faces. With a hesitant smile, Sai reaches out his hand—the unburned one—and puts it in Sasuke’s. Sasuke musters all of his strength to help pull Sai out of the window, and at first he thinks he succeeds. The sight of the woman grabbing Sai’s ankle registers too late in his mind. For a moment, Sasuke plays tug-of-war with the woman, using Sai as the rope before the pale boy promptly releases Sasuke’s grip from his hand. Sasuke’s hand feels cold. 

“Now, who the fuck are you kids, and what are you trying to do with my help?” the woman positively sneers. She thrusts Sai off of the counter, and he falls back onto the ground on his bottom. 

Naruto’s the first one to jump through the window, and Sasuke closely follows. Sakura stays outside the window, but Ino disappears into thin air. Sasuke goes to crouch by Sai, making sure that he’s okay while Naruto stands in between them and the woman with his arms spread out, presumably trying to make himself look as big as possible. 

“Sai, are you okay?” Sasuke murmurs, casting occasional glances at the stand-off between his brother and the woman.

“Ye-yes,” Sai says in a daze. 

“Who is that woman?”

“My… foster mom.”

“Doesn’t seem very motherly to me,” Sasuke scoffs. 

Now the man comes barreling into the room. “What’s happening? Who the fuck are these little shits?”

“Seems like trespassers to me,” the woman says. She picks up a knife, and Sasuke’s blood runs cold. He’s not even a ninja yet. He doesn’t have a tool pack. He has no access to shuriken or kunais. He’s too young to die. He feels his body wanting to cower. He wants to hide under the dining table. He wants to escape. He wants to… 

“I won’t allow you to hurt Sai or Sasuke!” Naruto shouts with such confidence that would make their father proud. Naruto hasn’t moved an inch, even after the woman pulled out the kitchen knife. Sasuke can feel his skin tingling. He activates his Sharingan and can see a sinister chakra radiating off of his brother. 

The woman takes a single step forward, but is stopped by somebody body flickering in front of her. From the back of his head, Sasuke recognizes Shisui and lets out a great sigh of relief. One of his uncles also body flickers into the room next to Naruto. 

With practiced grace, Shisui disarms the woman from the kitchen knife much like he would disarm Sasuke from a kunai during their practice sessions. 

“Uncle Yashiro,” Shisui says, “can you deal with these two? I’ll handle the kids.”

Their uncle nods, handcuffing the man and woman, and leading them through the front door while they shout expletives. Shisui turns around from where he’s standing, looks first at Naruto, then at Sasuke, and delicately raises a single eyebrow. Sasuke wills his body to stand up with quite considerable effort. He feels his knees buckling. He reaches out a hand, and again, Sai takes it; this time, a wide smile forms on his face.

“Come on, we need to go to the police station,” Shisui says. He then looks out the window. “You two as well. Follow me.” 

Sakura is visible, wringing her hands; Ino is next to her with a similar expression of worry.

Soon enough, the five of them are being corralled to the police station, right behind Sai’s adopted “parents”. 

\---

Naruto can’t keep his body from fidgeting in the uncomfortable lobby chair. He just can’t believe how Sasuke is sitting stock still next to him. They’ve already told their uncle and Shisui what happened in full detail and are waiting to be picked up. Itachi already checked in on them, eyeing them carefully, but he already left with his _girlfriend_. 

The lobby door opens, and lo and behold, his dad in all of his brilliance steps through the threshold. The other occupants in the room politely bow to their Hokage, but the man himself seems to only have his eyes trained on Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto gives him an apprehensive smile. He also nudges Sasuke’s foot when his brother doesn’t even bother looking at their dad. 

Their dad starts walking towards a back room and with a single finger curled towards him, Naruto jumps up out of his seat, grabs Sasuke, and bolts to follow the man. Walking behind him, Naruto is still in awe as he watches his dad’s haori brilliantly billow with every step. He’s mesmerized by the way everybody specifically steps out of his way and greets him. 

All too soon, their dad stops in front of a door and waves for them to go inside. From the sign outside the door, Naruto makes out that they are entering the Captain’s office. Oh, this can’t be good. This cannot be good at all. 

With delicate movements, Naruto lowers himself onto one of the chairs in front of a large mahogany desk. Sasuke does much the same next to him. Their dad sits behind the desk and pulls out a binder from underneath his arm that Naruto didn’t notice before. Agonizing seconds of waiting turn into minutes. Their dad flickers through the binder like it’s some light reading he has to do. His expression never changes as he turns each page. 

Naruto sees Sasuke’s knee bouncing uncontrollably, a reversal from his still performance in the lobby, and he himself can’t seem to stop his finger from tapping on his crossed arms. He shares another look with Sasuke. Another silent conversation. 

Finally, their dad lays the binder flat against the desk. He crosses his arms, leans back in his chair, and scrutinizes the both of them. Naruto feels an anxious grin forming on his face, and again, kicks Sasuke’s foot when he refuses to look at their dad. 

Their dad sighs before saying, “I hope that the both of you already know that you approached this in the wrong way.”

Naruto opens his mouth to talk but snaps it shut when their dad puts a single finger up. “But I do have to commend the both of you for following what you thought was right. I just have to say that you both are extremely lucky that the Yamanaka girl had the sense to call for help.”

“What’s going to happen to Sai?” Sasuke asks, finally looking their dad in the eye. 

Their dad meets his gaze before replying, “The Harunos have agreed to take him in, at least for now.”

“Well that’s good. Right, Sasuke?” Naruto says.

All Sasuke does is grunt in response. 

“All in all, I’m proud of you two.”

Naruto swears that he feels Sasuke’s mood lighten up tenfold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm thinking that there'll be one more chapter in this fic (final exams and graduation), and then I'll move on to the sequel. I'm going to try writing the sequel like a stand alone, but if you read this fic then kudos to you on having insider knowledge. Stay safe, and take care!


	19. Shinobi

“Saaaaaaaaasuke! Help me!” Naruto yells after barging into his room. 

Sasuke rolls over in his futon to face the wall, slightly pissed off that his peaceful slumber is being disturbed. He covers his left ear with his pillow when Naruto’s whining gets closer and closer to his body. He refuses to open his eyes, hoping to himself that a certain blonde will get the message and leave him alone. 

“I need help with the hand seals!” Naruto says. “I mean, I know how to actually perform the jutsu, but writing it out confuses me, y’know?” 

“Shut. Up,” Sasuke mumbles into his pillow.

It’s not his fault if his idiot brother fails their Academy final because he waited for the _very morning_ of the exam to cram. Nope. Naruto’s stupidity is the only culprit if the blonde happens to fail the test. There is absolutely nothing that will get him out of his lush, comfortable… 

“Pleeeease,” Naruto pleads as he rips Sasuke’s comforter right off of him. 

Sasuke immediately brings his knees up against his chest in a fetal position; he wraps his arms around his legs, the chill morning air already making him shiver and form goosebumps. Sasuke sends Naruto the best glare that he can muster in the dim light of his room after finally sitting up and crossing his legs. Sasuke slowly blinks at Naruto, but the damn evergreen smile on his face never falters. 

“Naruto,” Sasuke says in a flat voice, “do you want to die?”

“Oh come on, Sasuke,” Naruto says, having the audacity to just wave it off. “An eye for an eye, right? You do me one, and I’ll do you one.” 

Sasuke purses his lips, snatches his comforter from Naruto’s grasp, and wraps it around himself like a cocoon. 

“Fine,” Sasuke says.

“Fine?”

“Yes, fine. But only because I don’t want to see Hinata cry when you inevitably fail without my help.” 

Naruto grins and literally jumps into place next to Sasuke, setting a piece of paper in front of them. He makes himself comfortable on the futon while Sasuke scrutinizes his brother’s work. It’s… a complete mess. Sasuke flicks his eye back and forth between Naruto and his sloppy work. Not only are some techniques spelt wrong, but he listed the completely wrong hand seals next to some of them! 

“I don’t understand,” Sasuke says slowly, like he’s talking to some child, “how you are this abysmally bad and haven’t been expelled yet.”

“It’s not my fault, y’know. I can do the actual jutsu, shouldn’t that be enough?”

“No, it shouldn’t, you loser,” Sasuke says. “Passing the practical and failing the written will result in you not becoming a ninja.” 

Naruto has a look of horror on his face like he’s _shocked_ at the revelation. This dumbass. It’s way too early in the morning to be dealing with him. Sasuke squints at his clock to see that they have quite a few hours before they need to arrive on the Academy campus. He kicks Naruto off of the futon and lies back down making himself cover as much of the futon as possible. 

At Naruto’s protests, all Sasuke does is grunt. Eventually, Naruto simmers down, so Sasuke peeks an eye open to see what he’s doing. He’s trying to revise his mistakes. Cute. But after a couple of long, insufferable minutes of watching Naruto scribble out answers, write something else, and scratch his head in frustration, Sasuke feels a semblance of pity for his brother. 

Fully closing his eyes, Sasuke starts reciting all of the right answers from memory. He swears that he can _feel_ Naruto smile when he finishes.

\---

“It was a real pleasure working with you, Captain Kakashi,” Itachi says when the teen catches him outside the locker room. 

Kakashi scrutinizes his subordinate; well, former subordinate now. Itachi is wearing his street clothes: a high collar shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol on it and the standard issue shinobi pants. Kakashi himself is sporting the standard jonin flak jacket, and it feels… weird so say the least. He hasn’t worn one in literal years, if ever, now that he thinks about it. 

“You make it sound like one of us is going to die, Itachi,” Kakashi drawls. 

Itachi laughs while he starts walking, motioning for Kakashi to follow him. “I really am grateful you know. He wouldn’t say anything, but even Father was stressing out about this.” 

“Anything I should know about those two?” Kakashi says. “Well, this is assuming that they pass their exams in the first place.”

For whatever reason, Kakashi has given into Itachi’s incessant plea for him to sign up as a jonin sensei. And not just to be any random jonin sensei, but to be the proud teacher of a certain Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. Because, yes, Kakashi is a very proud individual. 

The pressure wasn’t even just from Itachi either. Guy already took on a squad last year, and this year, Asuma, Kurenai, and Natsu all submitted their applications to take on some bratty genin. Kakashi supposes that it wouldn’t be _that_ bad if all of them fail miserably at nurturing the next generation. If they’re going to fail, they should fail as a team, right?

“Well,” Itachi says, “Sasuke is a little cold sometimes, but he means well. As for Naruto—”

Without warning, Itachi’s body lurches into a coughing fit. Kakashi does his best to help steady the teen, but he can only do so much when Itachi is keeling over, coughing into his arm. Eventually, Itachi settles down and straightens back up with perfect posture, something he always nags Kakashi about. 

Kakashi raises his single visible eyebrow, knowing that Itachi will notice. 

But all Itachi does is shake his head and continue talking like nothing happened. “Anyway, Naruto is loud, brash, and headstrong. I don’t even think he knows the meaning of giving up,” Itachi says with a smile. 

“And I assume that Lord Fifth already knows about our little plans?”

“Of course,” Itachi responds, “I already requested that you take in the two of them. However, I believe that your third member will be chosen upon during your meeting later today after it’s known for sure on who’s passed and failed the exam.”

Kakashi casts a weary glance towards his former subordinate. “Anybody I should be worried about? I’m kind of over love triangles.”

“That,” Itachi says through whole hearted laughter, “is not for me to tell you.”

The two of them duck into a dango shop. Itachi waves to an older woman, and she immediately walks over to them and sets a plate of dango and kettle of tea on their table. The woman winks at Itachi, but he just waves her off like it’s a common occurrence. 

Kakashi waits for Itachi to start indulging in his own skewers of sweetness before gently pulling his mask down and stuffing a dango ball into his mouth. By the time Itachi looks back up, Kakashi makes sure to cover his mouth with his hand. Of course, Itachi has already seen his lips on numerous occasions during missions, but it’s the principle that counts. 

“So,” Kakashi says after swallowing, “are you feeling excited, Captain Itachi?”

Hidden behind his hand, Kakashi has a shit-eating grin. Itachi’s obvious discomfort at the title is such a rare joy to see. Very rare indeed.

Itachi fidgets in his seat for a little bit before saying, “Honestly, I don’t know why Father made me captain. There has to be better options somewhere.”

“Oh, you’ll grow into it. You need to be a big boy now, Itachi. Tenzo and I won’t be able to babysit you anymore.”

Itachi scoffs and shakes his head. He mutters something that Kakashi doesn’t quite catch, so he just hums in response. The dango shop that they went into is sufficiently busy, but not overcrowded, just the way that Kakashi likes it. There’s enough people to blend in, but not enough to evoke claustrophobia.

Kakashi opens his mouth to say something, but he’s interrupted by a certain booming voice. 

“Kakashi!” the voice yells, “How wonderful is it to see my eternal rival on this brilliant day!”

Kakashi pulls his mask back up and slowly turns in his seat. Lo and behold, Guy is right behind him in all of his glory. All of his green spandex, bowl cut glory. 

Itachi responds before Kakashi can say anything, “Hello, Mr. Guy. Care to join us?”

Guy grins a nice-guy smile and plops down next to Kakashi, already reaching over to pour himself a cup of tea. After taking a sip, Guy pats, more like slaps, Kakashi’s back in a congratulatory manner. “Congrats Kakashi on stepping up to the plate and agreeing to nurture the next generation of spring chicks. I tell you, it’s really worth it! Just thinking about my students’ growth brings tears to my eyes.”

Itachi has an amused look on his face while Kakashi feels like dying from second hand embarrassment when tears literally start flowing out of Guy’s eyes. If Kakashi ever cries over a student, somebody please kill him. Put him out of his misery as soon as possible if that ever happens. 

“Yes,” Itachi practically purrs, “I really am excited to see how you nurture my little brothers.”

Guy’s eyebrows immediately shoot up at that statement, his eyes wildly shooting from Kakashi to Itachi. “Eternal rival! Are you really going to look over our very own Hokage’s children throughout their tumultuous years of early ninjahood?”

Kakashi rolls his single visible eye. Guy’s dramatics are nothing new, but it tires him out nonetheless. 

“That’s only assuming that they pass,” Kakashi simply says. 

“Well, if they’re your brothers, Itachi, then I have no doubt that they will become splendid ninjas. But remember Kakashi, a genin squad is only as good as its parts. I know that you value teamwork so highly, but be sure to nurture their individual strengths too. Got it, Kakashi?”

Kakashi rolls his eye again before nodding. Itachi has fallen silent, simply eating his dango as he watches them. 

Guy fist bumps the air above him and says, “All right! Then I need to train my students even harder. Let’s see who can make their students chunin first!” 

\---

Ramen. There’s ramen everywhere. Waterfalls of noodles, seas of golden broth, trees of green onion cloud Naruto’s view. His mouth begins salivating, then all of a sudden he bends over and clenches his stomach. 

Naruto blinks, and he’s back in Sasuke’s room with said person standing over his laying body, glaring at him with enough vigor to make a lesser person cry. Crap. He must have fallen asleep while studying!

Naruto is about to ask what time it is when Sasuke throws a pile of clothes on him and says, “Get changed, loser. We’re leaving in exactly three minutes.” 

Sasuke, who’s already dressed for the day, sweeps out of the room with a characteristic grunt. Naruto jumps to his feet, already pulling his sleeping shirt up over his head. He’s not ready. He’s not ready. Oh, how is he going to pass the written test? 

He slips on his shirt, jacket, and changes his pants before literally running out of Sasuke’s room, already knowing that he surpassed his three minute deadline. Their house is empty: Their mom and Itachi have already left on missions and their dad is already at the Hokage Tower. Naruto makes a mad dash towards the kitchen, stuffs a piece of bread in his mouth, and runs out the house where Sasuke is already waiting for him with a grimace. 

Sasuke locks the front door, and the pair sprint in the direction of the Academy. Naruto tries his best to wave at passing relatives, but his mind’s too busy trying to process all the damn information he needs to know. Really, why would he need to know the theory of how the Body Flicker Jutsu works? He can do it, that should be enough. 

Waiting outside of the Academy gates, Sakura is waving towards them, and Hinata is wringing her hands. Naruto grins and waves at the two of them; Sakura rolls her eyes at him, and Hinata responds with a shy smile. 

“Come on, you two,” Sakura says, grabbing both of their collars. “Everybody else is already in the classroom.” 

Sakura literally drags them through the school with Hinata trailing closely behind them, and Naruto really has to envy the pink-haired girl. Sasuke is allowing her to drag him with an uneasy compliance, but that’s it. If Naruto ever grabbed his brother’s collar, he just knows that he might end up with a concussion or broken limb. Maybe both. 

The four of them make it to the classroom and their seats just as Iruka walks through the door with a stack of papers in hand. Naruto takes a deep, steadying breath and steels himself for anything and everything. He _will_ become a shinobi.

\---

By the time lunch rolls around, Sasuke can feel his empty stomach growling with fervor. If it wasn’t for a certain dumbass, he would have had time this morning to grab breakfast; but no, his sleep schedule just had to be disturbed, and he just had to wake up later than he wanted to. The only saving grace to his day has to have been watching Naruto basically crying at the end of their written test. Yes, that alleviated his mood somewhat. 

Sasuke savors at a bento box that Sakura ever so graciously is sharing with him since he didn’t have time to prepare his own lunch. Instead of going to the courtyard, their entire class is still in the classroom, already too tired to change locations. Sasuke would never say it aloud, but he truly hopes that all of his friends pass. Spending all of these years together studying and training, and _not_ becoming shinobi would definitely sting. But sharing these sentiments out loud is Naruto’s thing, not his. 

In front of him, Choji is consolingly patting Naruto’s back while Shikamaru is asleep at his desk with his arms wrapped around his face. Sasuke snorts at the image, wondering just how well Shikamaru did. Knowing the lazy bastard, he probably got the highest score in the class. 

In front of the three stooges, Kiba and Eri are loudly complaining to each other about the test while Kitaro gently pets Akamaru in his arms. Sasuke rolls his eyes at the nonsense he hears them say while he stuffs another bit of rice into his mouth. 

“Here, Sasuke,” Sakura says next to him. She pushes their bento box closer to his side of the desk than hers. “You can have the tomatoes. I put them in especially for you anyways.”

He’s about to express his thanks when somebody gushes behind them. “Wow, Billboard Brows. I didn’t know that you have it in you.” 

Sakura turns in her seat with fire in her eyes. Sasuke simply places a tomato slice in his mouth, not bothering to try and quell the two. Surprisingly, it’s Hinata that tries the Herculean task of taming the two beasts. 

“Umm, Sakura, Ino,” Hinata says, “let’s try n-not to fight. We still n-need to get ready for the practical.”

With a tense smile on her face, Sakura faces the front of the classroom again and says, “You’re right, Hinata. Today is not the day for fighting.”

Sasuke can just feel Sakura’s radiating anger when Ino makes a self-satisfied noise behind them. He can also feel the radiating glee when Ino squeals and the sound of chair scraping against the floor is heard. A quick glance behind him confirms that it was Sai who pulled Ino back into her seat. He makes eye contact with Sai and feels his mouth quiver upward when the pale boy rolls his eyes. 

All too soon, Iruka comes back into the room, telling everybody to clean up their lunch. _Please_ , Sasuke thinks, _let everybody pass and become shinobi_.

\---

Naruto gnaws at his lips in bated anticipation. Iruka left the room to anonymously review their results with other chunin and jonin. All he instructed them to do was wait patiently for him to come back with the results. 

“Calm down, Naruto,” Choji says, passing him a bag of chips. “I’m sure that you did fine.”

“If anything,” Shikamaru mumbles, “you can just ask your dad to override the results.”

Naruto is absolutely disgusted at the suggestion. Of course, it did occur to him that he _can_ do that, but he most definitely won’t. Not only would he face Sasuke’s ridicule, he would most likely face the disappointment of his dad. 

“I can’t do that,” Naruto says. 

“Why?”

“I just can’t, y’know.”

In front of him, Kiba scoffs before turning around. “Must be nice having the Hokage as your dad isn’t it.”

“Hey, what do you mean by that?”

At this point, Naruto has gotten out of his seat and is leaning on his desk. 

“What I mean is,” Kiba says as he sits up straighter, “you’re probably going to become a ninja even if you fail the test. We can’t have the Hokage’s kid being a dud, can we?”

Naruto stares at Kiba for a moment. Other than Sasuke, Kiba is his biggest rival. Since they first met, Naruto and Kiba had this inherent competition between the two of them over becoming Hokage. But this is the first time that Kiba has brought up his dad’s status into it.

Before Naruto can respond, Kitaro smacks Kiba on the back of his head. “Shut up, Kiba. You know as well as anybody that Naruto has worked just as hard as the rest of us. Don’t worry, Naruto. The exam just made Kiba think too much and is messin’ with his brain.”

Naruto just harrumphs in response. 

Kiba turns back around in his seat rubbing the back of his head. He mutters something, but all Kitaro does is snort in response while Akamaru barks from in his arms. Naruto will never understand their relationship. 

Since Shikamaru’s asleep at his desk and Choji decides to go up and talk to Shino, Naruto turns in his seat towards Sasuke’s desk. Sasuke is resting his chin on his hand while Sakura and Hinata are talking animatedly next to him. 

“Sasuke,” Naruto says. “How do you think you did?”

“Probably better than you.” 

Without missing a beat, Sakura turns towards him and lightly slaps his arm. Naruto smiles at the way he flinches but doesn’t retaliate. Sakura, and maybe Hinata, may be the only people in the world to have his prickly brother under lock and key. Well, excluding their eldest brother of course. 

Sakura turns towards Naruto, and politely asks, “How did the exam go for you, Naruto?” 

Naruto scratches the back of his neck. “Oh, I did fine I think.”

Sasuke mutters, “You don’t look like it.”

Okay, fine. But not everybody can be as cool and collected as Sasuke. 

Hinata smiles at him, and says, “I believe you, Naruto.”

“Well, thanks Hinata. That means a lot!”

A characteristic blush creeps in her face, and Sakura rolls her eyes. She opens her mouth but words don’t come out as she motions towards the door. Naruto turns his head and gulps at the sight of Iruka walking back into the classroom with a disappointed look on his face. 

“We have deliberated and have decided the final roster list. I will admit, the passing rate isn't as high as desired. Only one third of you passed.”

A collective gasp and intakes of breath fill the room

“Without further ado, I will read the names: Aburame Shino.”

Expected, Shino is pretty damn smart. He’s also very good at stealth, even if his bugs give Naruto the heebie-jeebies. 

“Akimichi Choji.”

Naruto pats his friend’s back while Choji smiles back at him. Choji’s always had his back, through thick and thin. 

“Haruno Sai.”

Naruto looks back and sees Sai smiling, and an even wider smile on Sakura's face. Naruto still thinks about that time he, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino trailed him and that woman. He shivers at the thought of what could have happened if Shisui and his uncle didn’t get there when they did. 

“Haruno Sakura.”

Sasuke gives Sakura a brief thumbs up before he promptly looks away. Sakura tries her best to smile, but even Naruto can see the sliver of hurt in her expression. Oh that bastard, what is Naruto going to do with him?

“Hyuga Hinata.”

Copying Sasuke, Naruto gives Hinata a double thumbs up, which she acknowledges with a timid smile. 

“Inuzuka Kiba.”

Kiba visibly slumps with relief, and Akamaru barks from Kitaro’s arms at the name of his owner. Naruto throws an eraser at the back of his head, and Kiba looks back at him with a wolfish grin before he mutters, “Sorry”. 

Naruto just shakes his head, already over his little outburst.

“Makino Kitaro.”

Eri roughly slaps Kitaro on his back. Naruto doesn’t know much about Eri, but Kitaro is completely different in and out of school. At school, Kitaro always matches Kiba’s animalistic attitude. Out of school, especially with his older sister, he’s like some stray puppy, always looking so hesitant. In both states, he’s nice enough to Naruto at least.. 

“Nakamura Eri.”

Kitaro retaliates with a slap of his own. Ever since she’s first stepped foot into their class, Eri has always been an enigma. 

“Nara Shikamaru.”

Naruto rolls his eyes when he doesn’t react. The lazy bum probably fell asleep. 

“Uchiha Sasuke.”

Sakura squeals behind him while Sasuke just grunts in response. 

“Uzumaki Naruto.”

Choji pats his shoulder when he lets out a sigh of relief that he didn’t even know he was holding. Everything feels light: his shoulders, his attitude, his mind. He actually can’t believe that he passed! Maybe he lucked out and got a blind reader for his written component. 

“And last but not least, Yamanaka Ino.”

Ino shouts with excitement. Only being muffled when Sai playful covers her mouth with his hand. 

“To each and every one of you, it has truly been my pleasure to have been your homeroom teacher,” Iruka says with tears in his eyes. “If I called your name, please remain seated. But if your name was not called, then I will excuse you one last time.”

Naruto fidgets in his seat as he watches the rest of his classmates, some of them crying, get out of their seats and give Iruka one last goodbye. Naruto waves bye to some of the ones that he was somewhat close with, but eventually they all file out of the room. 

“On a more happy note,” Iruka says after wiping his eyes. “I would like to congratulate the rest of you on becoming shinobi. Please, it would be my pleasure if each of you came down here so that I can give you your hitai-ate.” 

After queuing in a line, Iruka starts handing them their headbands one by one. Once Naruto gets his, it feels heavy in his hand. The true weight of responsibility of being a shinobi finally manifested and right in front of him. Naruto looks up and realizes that Sasuke is looking at him, his own hitai-ate still in his hand. With twin smiles, they wrap their hitai-ates around their foreheads at the same exact time. They are finally ninja.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that’s it! Just kidding of course, we’re only just getting into the real grit of the story. But I do want to pivot into a sequel because I feel like “Like Brothers” missed the mark on some points: POV wasn’t always consistent, paragraph length wasn’t always consistent, and the general focus of the story wasn’t always where it should have been. So I want to wipe the slate and start a more “refined” fic that is a direct sequel to this one, but can still be read as stand alone. I hope that you come along with me on the ride as I close Naruto and Sasuke’s journey as being “Like Brothers” and the start of them having “The Bond of Brothers”. (I don’t actually know if I’m going with this title). This has been a fun first fic to write, so thank you to everybody that has read/given kudos/commented!
> 
> On a side note, how many people do you think will instantly drop the story when they see that I paired up such precious characters like Kakashi and Itachi with OC’s? lol


End file.
